In a world where most wouldn’t dare utter “NBA” and “WNBA” in the same breath, Caitlin Clark just walked onto the scene and upended everything we thought we knew about sports viewership. Yes, folks, the WNBA is giving the NBA a serious run for its ratings money, and it’s all thanks to a rookie who handles a basketball with the intensity of a 3-point sniper and the charisma of a Hollywood star.
Clark, the Indiana Fever’s phenom, isn’t just elevating her team; she’s attracting millions of fans to the screen. Her debut with the Fever drew a staggering 2.1 million viewers on ESPN2—beating the NBA’s season openers on ESPN by half a million. Now, granted, it wasn’t exactly LeBron vs. Curry, but for a WNBA game to so thoroughly trounce NBA coverage is, to put it mildly, a big deal.
And it’s not just debut curiosity at play here. Clark’s games averaged a jaw-dropping 199% more viewers than other matchups, clocking in around 1.19 million viewers no matter the network. She’s pulled in numbers that have basketball executives squinting at their spreadsheets, wondering if they’ve entered a parallel universe. NBA fans, meet the “Clark Effect.”
Historically, the NBA has run unchallenged, with its 1.6 million average regular-season viewership on TNT, ABC, and ESPN looking down on the WNBA’s less-than-million average. But these days, WNBA games—especially Clark’s—are pushing into must-watch territory. Just for perspective, the WNBA All-Star Game drew 3.44 million viewers, solidly in the range of top NBA games, and almost as many fans tuned in to the WNBA Draft as they did to the NBA’s rookie selection extravaganza.
Naturally, there’s still a noticeable gap. NBA playoffs remain a ratings juggernaut, with over 3 million viewers in their first week compared to the Fever-Sun WNBA first-round game’s 2.15 million. And the NBA Finals still soar, hitting 11.3 million average viewers, miles ahead of the WNBA Finals, which maxed out around 2.2 million despite facing competition from Sunday Night Football and the MLB Playoffs.
But here’s the kicker: the NBA’s ratings have started trending downward, while WNBA numbers are climbing faster than a buzzer-beater. This surge has executives rethinking everything from scheduling to marketing. And with Clark just a rookie, this might be only the beginning.
As the NBA gears up for another season of trying to figure out who’ll take down the Denver Nuggets, they might just have a new opponent: the WNBA’s rising viewership, powered by Caitlin Clark, the player who can sink a 3-pointer and sink traditional viewership hierarchies all at once.