Caitlin Clark, Fever, lift NBA TV to yet another record

If Caitlin Clark is playing on NBA TV, chances are that the network drew its largest ever WNBA audience.

Wednesday’s Aces-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged a 0.39 rating and 678,000 viewers on NBA TV , marking the largest WNBA audience ever on the network. The previous high was set earlier this month by a Fever-Wings game on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (652K).

NBA TV has now set a WNBA viewership record eight separate times this season, all for games involving Clark. Prior to this season, no WNBA game on the network had ever averaged more than 210,000. (NBA TV became Nielsen rated in 2010.)

Including NBA games, the Aces’ win was the most-watched game on NBA TV since Game 5 of the 2023 Heat-Bucks first round NBA playoff series, which Miami won to complete a rare #8 over #1 upset (934K). WNBA games — specifically those involving Caitlin Clark — account for the top two, three of the top four, and five of the top ten audiences on NBA TV over that span.

Most-watched games on NBA TV, past year

(The all-time record for any game on NBA TV remains 2.6 million for a 2016 Warriors-Spurs game in which Golden State tied the then-record for wins in an NBA season, 72.)

Head-to-head, Aces-Fever more-than-tripled ESPN’s Baseball Tonight whiparound show in the same window (222K).

In Wednesday’s nightcap, Storm-Sparks lagged behind with a 0.08 and 124,000.

In other WNBA action, ESPN/ABC finished its WNBA season with an average of 1.2 million viewers — easily the most-watched regular season ever on the network and an increase of 170% from last year. The network’s season finale, an Aces-Liberty WNBA Finals rematch on the opening Sunday of the NFL season, was on the low side with just 277,000.

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