Caitlin Clark Makes WNBA Debut With Indiana Fever In League’s Most-Watched Game In More Than 20 Years

katie campione

Wed, 15 May 2024, 6:54 pm·1-min read

Caitlin Clark made her WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever on Tuesday night, attracting a record-breaking audience for the matchup against the Connecticut Sun.

The game averaged 2.1M viewers across SPN2, ESPN+ and Disney+, marking the most-watched WNBA game on ESPN platforms ever, according to the network.

More from Deadline

It breaks a record previously head by a Phoenix Mercury at Connecticut Sun game from 2004. That matchup drew nearly 1.5M viewers, which is far below this new record set by Clark’s debut game.

Not only that, but it’s also the largest WNBA audience in more than two decades, since a 2001 Sparks-Comets game. That game was on broadcast, though, meaning that it had a better chance at capturing such a broad audience. Tuesday’s Fever-Sun game is the league’s largest cable audience ever.

Just to further illustrate this unprecedented viewership, the second game of the night featured the Phoenix Mercury at Las Vegas Aces. That game managed an average audience of 464,000.

Together, the two games averaged 1.28M viewers, up 192% versus last year’s regular season average on ESPN platforms.

Best of Deadline