Saturday’s game between the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky drew an average of 2.7 million viewers on ABC, making it the most watched WNBA regular-season contest in 25 years, per Sports Media Watch.
The game, which peaked at 3.1 million viewers, drew the league’s second-largest average audience for any event, behind only last year’s WNBA All-Star Game (3.44 million).
It was the largest regular-season audience for a WNBA game since Memorial Day 2000.
ESPN on Sunday also had its best “Sunday Night Baseball” audience in seven seasons as the New York Mets–New York Yankees rivalry averaged more than 2.53 million viewers and peaked at 3,018,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.
The Fever thrashed the rival Sky 93-58, with Clark recording a triple-double and picking up her first flagrant foul as a pro. Clark fouled Angel Reese to prevent a clear layup, and Reese was incensed and shouted at her for several moments after the whistle. Clark’s foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 after review.
The WNBA is investigating allegations of hateful comments or noises made toward the players during the incident. A video shared on social media showed a male fan — wearing a red replica Clark jersey with matching shorts — sitting courtside and making high-pitched noises while Reese shot a free throw with 4:38 left in the third quarter.
On Sunday, the WNBA released a statement saying that it was “aware of the allegations” and looking into the matter.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
