WNBA viewership is hitting new heights, as Sunday’s Fever vs Sky clash drew 3.31 million viewers across NBC and Peacock to become the league’s most-watched regular-season game since its first-ever weekend slate.
Peaking at 3.82 million, the 113-90 Indiana win ranks as the third-most watched regular-season game on record, trailing only June 1997’s New York vs LA (5.04 million) and Charlotte vs Phoenix (3.59 million) inaugural season-openers on NBC.
Fever star Caitlin Clark fueled the numbers with a lights-out performance, erupting for 37 points off a career-best eight 3-pointers plus 10 assists.
The night marked the second regular-season WNBA game to feature in a linear network’s primetime Sunday lineup. It highlights NBC’s return to the WNBA.
The channel dominated live coverage from 1997 to 2002, before signing back on as a part of this year’s blockbuster media deal.
“Remember when I joined the league, we had 15 games on national platforms, mostly on ESPN2 and ESPNU,” Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told Sports Business Journal in May.
“This year we’ll have 216 out of 330 regular-season games on national platforms. That’s over 65%.”
