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Star power is a wonderful thing.
And now that the WNBA has plenty of it in the form of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and several others, the women’s basketball league is blowing its TV ratings records out of the water.
David Rumsey of Front Office Sports reports that six networks have broadcasted their most-watched WNBA games of all time this season.
Five of those six broadcasts featured Clark and her Indiana Fever teammates.
But it’s not all Clark’s doing.
Sunday’s game between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx on CBS averaged a 0.43 and 704,000. That number surpassed a matchup between the two last season (694K) as the most-watched WNBA game ever on the network.
New York features reigning league MVP Breanna Stewart as well as fellow stars Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot.
Rumsey reports that ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, Ion, CBS and NBA TV all recorded record viewership for games.
- ESPN2: Fever at Sun, May 14, 2.1 million
- ABC: Fever at Liberty, May 18, 1.71 million
- ESPN: Sun at Fever, May 20, 1.56 million
- Ion: Fever at Sparks, May 24, 724,000
- CBS: Liberty at Lynx, May 25, 704,000
- NBA TV: Fever at Aces, May 25, 333,000
WNBA Ratings Boost Comes At Perfect Time As League Begins To Expand
The WNBA currently has just 12 teams. But that’s set to change in the near future. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that the league hopes to grow to 16 teams in the coming years, with franchises in Golden State and Toronto already announced.
“[Four more teams] adds 48 roster spots to a league of 144,” she said. “That’s a 30% add. So I think then we settle at the 16 [teams] and see where we go from there …The first [WNBA viral moment] was the year Sabrina Ionescu got drafted [in 2020]. So she could have been our Caitlin Clark back then.
“But you know what, I’ve been reflecting a lot. We weren’t ready for that then. I don’t think you all were ready for that then. I don’t think the sports fan was ready for that then. And then we did that little thing in February of ’22 called raising capital, raised $75 million — the first women’s sports property to do it at that scale. Trying to get ready for a moment that we didn’t know was coming, and now it came.”
If you haven’t hopped on the WNBA bandwagon, now is the time. Because it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.