Caitlin Clark, Fever Deliver Another Massive WNBA Ratings Statement

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever keep setting a new standard when it comes to WNBA TV ratings.

Caitlin Clark dribbles during an Indiana Fever game. | IMAGO / Icon Sportswire

As if anybody needed more proof that Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are the biggest draws in the WNBA, they added more evidence to this during their showdown against the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday.

ESPN's PR department made an X post on Tuesday that announced the ABC broadcast of the Fever-Lynx game drew an average of 2.5 million viewers and peaked at 3.1 million viewers.

This made that contest the second-most-watched WNBA game ever on an ESPN-produced broadcast (ESPN produces ABC's sports broadcasts because both networks are owned by The Walt Disney Company). The graphic ESPN posted also indicated that the audience for Sunday's game was up 77 percent compared to last year’s ABC regular season average.

This past Sunday, ESPN delivered its 2nd most-watched regular-season @WNBA game ever! 👏

🏀 Indiana Fever vs Minnesota Lynx averaged 2.5M viewers on ABC, up 77% YoY

Details: https://t.co/MRyOg8gHEU pic.twitter.com/sUy8xLFa4Q

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) August 4, 2026

The Fever's 108-88 victory over the New York Liberty on Saturday, July 18, averaged 2.579 million viewers, which made it the most-watched WNBA game on any network this season, and the second most-watched since 2000.

Indiana's dominant victory over the Las Vegas Aces the weekend before that contest against New York drew 2.64 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, which had made it the largest total WNBA audience this year.

Fever Remain the Common Denominator Among Most-Watched WNBA Games

There's no question that the Minnesota Lynx were a factor in why this game drew so much attention. They're the WNBA's best team right now, and rookie guard Olivia Miles' spectacular season has garnered a ton of interest.

Not to mention that it was the first time Minnesota and Indiana have faced each other this season, which adds to the overarching point: the Fever—and Caitlin Clark, more specifically—are the common denominator among all of these most-watched games.

Other WNBA games between non-Fever teams that don't include No. 22 can perform well in terms of ratings. But they haven't (and probably won't ever) compare to the attention and interest that Fever games where Clark is playing will draw.

What's perhaps most impressive of all is that these staggering ratings are taking place during the regular season.

Clark has only played in two WNBA postseason games, both of which arrived during the 2024 season and both of which were losses to the Connecticut Sun. Game 2 of that series averaged 2.5 million viewers on ESPN, which set a record as the most-watched WNBA game ever to air exclusively on cable (Game 1 drew 1.8 million viewers on ABC).

Now Clark's regular season games are matching that viewership, which makes it fascinating to imagine how many eyeballs her postseason games might attract if and when the Fever make another postseason run later this year.