WNBA's Record Playoff TV Ratings Shows Cost of Fever Elimination
The WNBA Playoffs' first-round TV ratings were released on Tuesday, and the results are a staggering success for the league.
The first round averaged 1.3 million viewers across all networks, which made it the most-watched first round in WNBA history. What's more, viewership was +37% compared to the first round a season ago. It was a 17% viewership increase from 2024, which had been the most-watched first round in league history before these metrics were released.
There's one clear correlation between 2026 and this season: Caitlin Clark.
The Indiana Fever guard (who missed the 2025 postseason with an injury) is the biggest ratings draw in league history by a long shot. These first-round numbers prove that, as do the insane viewership metrics that the Fever and the Las Vegas Aces' best-of-three series produced.
Game 1 last Sunday drew 2.11 million viewers on ABC, per Sports Media Watch. This made for the largest WNBA playoff audience on ABC and the third-largest across all networks since 2000.
Game 2 of the series averaged 1.42 million on Amazon Prime Video, which was the largest WNBA audience yet on the platform (and it came with major competition from the MLB postseason).
Game 3 on Thursday took the crown, averaging 2.25 million viewers on USA Network and peaking at 2.7 million. This was the third-largest WNBA playoff viewership in history for a game outside of the WNBA Finals.
For more context, last year's WNBA Finals between the Las Vegas Aces and the Phoenix Mercury averaged about 1.5 million viewers per game across ESPN and ABC for the four-game Aces sweep.
Record WNBA Playoff Ratings Show What League Will Miss Without Fever
As great a team as the Aces are, the reality is that the majority of their series' first-round interest was predicated on Clark and the Fever.
But it was Las Vegas who win the series three-game and advanced to the WNBA Semifinals.
Of course, neither the Aces nor the league deserve criticism for causing the Fever's first-round exit. But the bottom line is that Clark and the Fever advancing as deep into the postseason as possible would have been the best possible scenario for the league, in terms of viewership and mainstream interest.
The WNBA Semifinals TV ratings will eventually come out once both series end, and the metrics will be fantastic. But they won't be as big as they would have been if the Fever were playing.
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Grant Young covers women’s basketball for Women’s Fastbreak and Indiana Fever On SI. His coverage centers on league trends and the growth of women’s basketball, both on and off the court. He also creates digital content focused on the sport’s biggest moments and personalities.
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