WNBA ratings fell off a cliff after star player Caitlin Clark’s first year in the league officially came to a close.
Clark’s Indiana Fever managed to deliver the most-watched WNBA game on cable in history, at 2.5 million viewers for Game 2 against the Connecticut Sun on September 25. The game peaked at high of 3.4 million viewers.
After the Fever were eliminated, the first game of the next playoff round featuring the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces brought in just 929,000 viewers on September 29. This, despite it being a rematch of the 2023 WNBA finals.
According to the New York Post, the semifinal was still the most-watched WNBA semifinals in the last 22 years.
Meanwhile, the first game of the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun semifinal had about 650,000 viewers on average, the Daily Mail reported.
Both semifinals pale in comparison to Clark’s first playoff game, which drew 1.84 million viewers on September 22.
This mirrors the Clark effect that was present all season long in the WNBA; where she went, viewers and attendees followed.
The top 14 most-watched games of the WNBA season were all featuring Clark’s Indiana Fever.
Through the first weekend of June, Clark made headlines for tripling the average viewership of WNBA games whenever she played. Games that featured Clark had an average of 1.099 million viewers while games without her averaged only 414,000 viewers.
The latter was still an increase over the league’s 2023 season average viewership of 301,000.
Clarke also caused stark increases in ticket prices when she played in other teams’ arenas.
In May, Clark’s presence sent the prices at the Sun’s game skyrocketing by a shocking 469% when compared to the cheapest ticket price for the next Connecticut game.
A visit to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to play the New York Liberty increased ticket prices by 300%, from $21 to $84.
In Seattle, prices increased from $26 to $70 (169%) when Clark came to town.
When Indiana visited the Las Vegas Aces on May 25, ticket prices were 2,200% more expensive than the Aces next home game; $92 before dropping to just $4.
At the same time, Clark’s team led the league in attendance, averaging nearly 5,000 more attendees per game than the next highest franchise.
Despite all the added fanfare, 2024 is still expected to be the most costly season for the WNBA. The league was estimated to be preparing for a $50 million loss from the season, which often included players complaining about charter flights and private planes not being to their liking.
The league typically loses only $10 million, staying afloat as a subsidy of the NBA.
For Clark, she finished the season with an average of 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game. Her assists were the most in the league.
