The WNBA knew what it was doing when it scheduled Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever to play against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky for the season opener.
The college rivals have carried their collegiate rivalry into the pros, which has paid big dividends for the WNBA. Despite being a 93-58 blowout, the Fever’s game against the Sky drew 2.7 million average viewers and peaked at 3.1 million.
The most-watched WNBA opening weekend EVER on ESPN platforms 👏
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) May 20, 2025
Sky-Fever
🏀 2.7M avg. viewers, 3.1M peak
🏀 Most-watched WNBA game EVER on ESPN platforms
Aces-Liberty
🏀 1.3M avg. viewers, 1.9M peak pic.twitter.com/SWMHmNwXrb
The game also represented a 115% increase over last year’s regular season average viewership on ABC. For those wondering (there probably aren’t any) whether Caitlin Clark is responsible for this surge in ratings and viewership, the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty, last year’s finals teams and the last two league champions, drew 1.3 million average viewers.
In other words, the Clark and Reese rivalry doubled the rematch of last year’s finals.
The only WNBA game that has drawn more viewers than Clark and Reese’s season opener was last year’s All-Star game, which drew 3.4 million. However, that game also included Clark and Reese.
As a point of reference, the NBA on ABC drew an average of 2.8 million viewers, a mere 100,000 more than Clark and Reese.
