Caitlin Clark and the Fever make the WNBA’s 30th season historic with a feat never seen in league history
Nine of the WNBA's 10 most-watched games this season feature Clark and the Indiana Fever
After the four Sunday games, the WNBA will enter a break from August 31 through September 16, to accommodate the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Berlin, Germany, where 12 of their stars, including Caitlin Clark , A'ja Wilson , and Paige Bueckers , will represent the USA in Group D, facing China on September 4th, Italy on September 6th, and Czechia on September 7th.
When they return, each team will have around four to three games remaining on their schedules, which will primarily serve to determine final positioning since the eight playoff teams are already officially locked in : the Lynx, Valkyries, Aces, Dream, Fever, Liberty, Mystics, and Wings.
Caitlin Clark Shatter WNBA Viewership Records
This season, the league is celebrating its 30th anniversary , and across the 29 previous campaigns, it has never experienced this level of intense media attention or television viewership, a surge driven entirely by the cultural phenomenon of Caitlin Clark .
Historically, the two most-watched games in league history dated back to the inaugural 1997 season , when the opener between the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks drew over 5 million viewers , followed by the Phoenix Mercury versus Charlotte Sting matchup pulling in 3.59 million the next day.
Ranking firmly at number three is the Fever's recent showdown against the Chicago Sky , with NBC reporting that 3.31 million viewers tuned in.
Including this blockbuster affair, three of the WNBA's top ten most-watched broadcasts of all time have occurred this year, every single one featuring the Indiana Fever and Clark, who made history before the season even tipped off by becoming the first team in league history to have 100% of their games televised nationally.
The milestone ratings wave continues down the all-time list, with Fever matchups occupying the sixth and seventh spots for regular-season broadcasts: Indiana's clash against the Aces drew 2.64 million viewers , while their battle against the Dream brought in 2.60 million .
Following tonight's contest against the Connecticut Sun, an opponent sitting near the bottom of the league standings, the Fever will play four remaining regular-season games, capped by a heavyweight back-to-back series against the league-leading Minnesota Lynx .
Given the massive national spotlight, those late-season clashes stand a strong chance of crashing the all-time top-ten viewership chart as Clark and her squad rewrite the business side of professional basketball.
