Indiana Fever Ratings Drop to Admirable Degree Without Caitlin Clark

Even without Caitlin Clark on the court, Indiana Fever fans are tuning into watch their team compete.

May 22, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts after a basket against the Atlanta Dream in the first half at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark having suffered a left quad strain (that will keep her off the court for at least two weeks) was obviously a big loss for the Fever, as Clark is the team's offensive maestro and main facilitator. And her absence was keenly felt during Indiana's May 28 loss against the Washington Mystics.

However, Clark being sidelined is also a tough blow for the WNBA as a whole. Given that she's women's basketball's biggest star and draws an unprecedented amount of eyeballs, there was no getting around the fact that fewer people were going to tune in to Fever games without her.

Although Clark's fan base isn't solely tied to her at this point, as they've also become Fever fans more broadly. This was demonstrated by a May 29 X post from Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press, which conveyed the ratings from the Fever's recent game against Washington.

"Guess people are fans no matter who plays. Fever/Mystics on NBA TV averaged 357K viewers, making it the 10th most-viewed WNBA game on NBA TV ever," Feinberg wrote.

Guess people are fans no matter who plays. Fever/Mystics on NBA TV averaged 357K viewers, making it the 10th most-viewed WNBA game on NBA TV ever.

— Doug Feinberg (@DougFeinberg) May 30, 2025

A good reference for this 357,000 number is the Fever's May 20 game against the Atlanta Dream, which Clark played in and was also broadcast on NBA TV. That game averaged 581,000 viewers. Therefore, Wednesday's contest was about a 39% drop from Clark's most recent active game that was broadcast on NBA TV.

NBA TV's most-viewed WNBA game was on September 11, 2024, between Clark's Fever and the Las Vegas Aces. That game averaged 678,000 viewers, according to X user @koyeahk.

Top 10 WNBA games on NBA TV viewership:

9/11/24: Aces-Fever - 678K
9/1/24: Fever-Wings - 652K
8/26/24: Fever-Dream - 617K
5/20/25: Dream-Fever - 581K (new)
8/28/24: Sun-Fever - 580K
8/24/24: Fever-Lynx - 569K
.
.
.
5/29/25: Fever-Mystics - 375K (new) https://t.co/3McOnvPrXc

— ¯⁠\⁠(⁠◉⁠‿⁠◉⁠)⁠/⁠¯ (@koyeahk) May 30, 2025

Still, the fact that Wednesday's game was the 10th-largest audience on NBA TV, despite Clark not playing, is a testament to how devoted Fever fans are — even without their shining star.