Caitlin Clark is continuing to set viewership records across the WNBA’s media rights platforms, with Amazon Prime Video the latest to set a record for an Indiana Fever game.
Fever-Dallas Wings on Thursday averaged 1.07 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch. That is the most-watched WNBA game ever measured on Prime Video, surpassing Las Vegas Aces-Fever two weeks earlier (948,000).
Note that the viewership high comes with a major caveat. While Prime Video has aired WNBA games since 2021, this is the first year that the games have been Nielsen-rated.
Most impressively, viewership for Fever-Wings was on par with the NBA on Prime Video, which averaged 1.07 million viewers across last season. Comparing one game to a full-season average is not perfect, but it does show how uniquely strong Clark’s draw is.
The overall WNBA on Prime Video average will likely be significantly lower, however. The most-watched NBA regular-season game on Prime Video was the NBA Cup final, with 3.07 million viewers.
Prime Video also aired the WNBA equivalent of that game, the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup final, between the Aces and New York Liberty, which averaged 403,000 viewers, according to Sports Media Watch.
If it wasn’t already obvious, Caitlin Clark is an incredible draw for the WNBA. She and the Fever have set viewership records on almost all of the WNBA’s broadcasters this year.
Fever-Aces on NBC and Peacock leads the way in terms of records, with 2.64 million viewers in July. That is the second-most-watched WNBA regular-season game since 2000.
On ESPN in August, the Fever-Atlanta Dream averaged 2.58 million viewers, the most-watched WNBA audience on cable ever. In July, Fever-Liberty on CBS averaged 2.58 million viewers, which was the most-watched WNBA broadcast ever on CBS.
Even the more minor networks airing the WNBA have seen Caitlin Clark-fueled records. Also in August, Fever-Wings averaged 1.62 million viewers on Ion, which was that network’s most-watched telecast of any kind since August 30, 2022. On USA Network in July, Fever-Golden State Valkyries averaged 1.14 million viewers, the most-watched WNBA game on the network.
The only network not to set a record this year was ABC. Fever-Sky in August pulled in 2.6 million viewers, the most-watched WNBA game on ABC this year, but behind Sky-Fever last season (2.70 million) for the most-watched on the network. The latter game remains the most-watched WNBA regular-season game since 2000.
Of course, many of these records are skewed by Nielsen’s shift to the new Big Data standard in September, which has inflated sports viewership, but the overall story is clear. For the WNBA, right now, there is simply no draw like Caitlin Clark.
