Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark is more than just a WNBA star. She's a happening.
The latest evidence came last weekend, when a game involving Clark and the Fever outdrew any NBA game last season on NBA TV, per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.
Last Sunday's Fever-Wings WNBA regular season game averaged 652,000 viewers on NBA TV, marking the largest WNBA audience ever on the network — surpassing a high of 617,000 for Fever-Dream less than a week earlier," Lewis wrote. "It was the third WNBA record set on NBA TV in the span of eight days, all for games involving the Clark-led Fever."
But wait. There's more.
"Notably, Indiana's win averaged more viewers than any NBA game on NBA TV last season, regular season or playoffs," Lewis added. "Last year's season-high on NBA TV was 645,000 for Cavaliers-Warriors in November. The last NBA game with a larger audience on NBA TV was Heat-Bucks Game 5 in the 2023 playoffs, which saw eighth-seeded Miami complete an upset of top-seeded Milwaukee (934K)."
In other words, Clark is making every bit the impact in the eyes of fans as many suspected she would when the Fever chose her with the No. 1 overall draft pick. She is also making a major impact on the court, with the Fever poised to make the playoffs after finishing horribly over the past four or five years.
Clark is a major reason for that, but so are some of her teammates, such as Aliyah Boston, another former No. 1 pick, and fellow guard Kelsey Micthell. But it is Clark who has fans tuning in at record levels. And that is not up for debate.
