The Indiana Fever’s Wednesday night game against the Los Angeles Sparks averaged 1.04 million viewers across USA Network and CNBC, a strong showing for Caitlin Clark’s return after a two-week absence.
The audience made it the largest late-night regular season WNBA audience on record for a game that started at 10 PM ET or later. It also continued a familiar trend: Fever games remain the league’s biggest television draw, and Clark’s presence still moves the numbers in a major way.
What the viewership says about Clark’s impact
This was not an isolated spike. The Fever and Clark continue to be the biggest television draw in the WNBA, and even games without Clark have tended to outperform the rest of the league. The pattern has been building since Clark’s injury-wracked sophomore season, when audiences began to follow Fever games at a much higher level than the league average.
That context matters because the recent ratings have shown the league’s broader audience is healthier when the Fever are involved. Last Sunday, the Fever-Aces game on ’s “Women’s Sports Sundays” drew 1.55 million viewers without Caitlin Clark, while and ABC were averaging 1.3 million viewers for WNBA games as of that date. The prior week, the Liberty-Sparks game on “Women’s Sports Sundays” drew 778,000 viewers, and the Liberty-Valkyries game the week before drew 743,000. Last Saturday, the Valkyries-Dream game on CBS drew 965,000 viewers.
More eyes are still coming when Clark plays
The Wednesday number also fits with a broader point: no Fever game with Clark out is truly without Clark in a ratings sense. As Jon Lewis put it, her pull does not magically vanish just because she is not on the floor. Clark’s return, even with a 20-25 minute restriction, was still enough to give NBCU another major ratings night.
That sets up another important test this weekend, when the Fever and Aces meet again on NBC’s “Sunday Night Basketball.” After the latest audience on USA Network and CNBC, the league has another clear example of how much interest follows Clark and the Fever, especially when they are part of a marquee window.
