Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese Help WNBA All-Star Game Shatter Ratings Record

Whenever Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky power forward Angel Reese are playing, it’s must-see television.

So when the two combined forces to take on the U.S. women’s national team at this year’s WNBA All-Star Game, of course it set a ratings record.

According to The Athletic, Saturday’s ABC broadcast drew 3.44 million viewers on ABC — destroying the previous WNBA All-Star game record of 1.44 million viewers in 2003, and registering as the most-watched WNBA game on an ESPN or ESPN affiliate network.

Saturday’s All-Star game also became the third-most watched WNBA game of all-time, behind only the New York Liberty-Los Angeles Sparks and Charlotte Sting-Phoenix Mercury regular-season games from 1997, which drew 5.04 million and 3.59 million viewers, respectively.

“This weekend’s extraordinary viewership underscores women’s sports’ exponential growth and ESPN is proud to showcase this incredible league and its exceptional athletes on such a grand stage,” ESPN SVP of League Programming and Acquisitions Julie Sobieski said, via The Athletic .

The 2003 WNBA All-Star game, which featured Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Chamique Holdsclaw, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, and several others, had quite a bit more name recognition, but this year’s game truly showed the kind of star power that Clark and Reese have.

WNBA viewership had not reached 1 million viewers in the previous 16 seasons but has done so 17 times this year. Clark has been featured in 15 of them, including the two most-watched non-All-Star games this season, both of which featured Clark’s Fever against Reese’s Sky and drew over 2 million viewers.

Related: ESPN Analyst Predicts How Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese Rookie Of The Year Race Ends

Related: UFL Blames Caitlin Clark For League’s Poor Attendance Numbers