Caitlin Clark and Fever WNBA Playoffs Interest Not Quelled By NFL

Game 1 of Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever's WNBA Playoffs series with the Connecticut Sun drew huge viewership despite going head-to-head with an NFL Sunday.

Sep 22, 2024; Uncasville, Connecticut, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) looks at the video board in the fourth quarter against Connecticut Sun during game one of the first round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark Smith-Imagn Images | Mark Smith-Imagn Images

It can be argued the NFL is the single most popular thing in the United States.

Games routinely draw viewership numbers north of 20 million, an entire day of the week is synonymous with the league, and the Super Bowl is the biggest event in American pop culture.

So, it would be reasonable to expect football to take attention away from almost anything else going on, including Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. But that hasn't been the case, and wasn't again for the team's Game 1 WNBA Playoffs loss to the Connecticut Sun.

Clark's playoff debut still reportedly drew 1.8 million viewers, that according to The Athletic's sports media expert Andrew Marchand.

For context, Clark and the Fever's game against the Sun, which wasn't particularly close, was in the same window as many of the NFL's top games; including a portion of the Baltimore Ravens win over the Dallas Cowboys. Of course the Cowboys are perhaps the marquee franchise in all of football.

Bro and you have ppl out here praying the Fever loose their second game -

Mind you this was on NFL Sunday - this is who they were competing with, and yet they still managed to pull 1.8 million views…..#FeverRising #WNBA https://t.co/PuxT8IixND pic.twitter.com/QXJ41WoIO8

— Krysta (@Krysta____) September 24, 2024

This is not the only example of Clark's popularity withstanding the presence of football, as the Fever also drew over a million viewers up against a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers a couple weeks ago.

It's also worth noting that even with the heavy competition, the contest between the Fever and Sun cleared last year's WNBA Finals numbers by a significant margin. That series featuring the champion Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty averaged 728,000 viewers, which was a 36% increase from the year prior.

It's not as if any more evidence was needed to display the massive influx of fandom Clark has brought to the WNBA, however, it is still noteworthy that the interest wasn't quelled by the NFL.