When Caitlin Clark arrived in the WNBA in 2024, she brought a level of attention this league had never seen before. According to Sports Business Journal in 2024, 19 of the 22 WNBA games that drew more than one million viewers in that season involved Clark and the Indiana Fever. That said, many speculated those numbers would eventually slow down once the novelty wore off. However, that has not been the case.

According to Fever reporter Scott Agness, the primetime matchup between Indiana and the New York Liberty on Saturday averaged 2.557 million viewers and peaked at more than 3 million viewers. So, because of those figures, this matchup is now the most-watched WNBA game of the 2026 season and the second-most-watched regular-season or playoff game since 2000. However, for Caitlin Clark’s biographer Christine Brennan, the record-setting audience was simply the latest example of a trend that has followed the Fever star throughout her professional career.

Responding to Agness’ post, she wrote: “Comparing other Caitlin Clark games: 2026 Fever-Wings season opener on ABC (Saturday afternoon) averaged 2.5M viewers, peaking near 3M.

“Her two 2024 playoff games? Game 1 on ABC Sunday afternoon vs. NFL: 1.84M, peak: 2.2M. Game 2 on ESPN Wed. evening: 2.54M, peak: 3.4M.”

It was a big game. With the Fever’s Clark and Liberty’s Breanna Stewart featured in the game, fans were curious. In the end, Liberty won 83-75. With that, Indiana fell 1-1 in the Commissioner’s Cup, and Clark finished with 10 points and nine assists.

“When you give somebody 21 free throws, it makes things really difficult,” she said after the game.

Why do these big viewership figures matter?

Even after Clark was sidelined from the 2025 WNBA season with a groin injury, the Indiana Fever remained one of the league’s biggest television draws. For instance, CBS aired two Fever games that excluded Clark, and both of them attracted more than 1.3 million viewers. Then, when it came to ION, Indiana’s seven games on the network averaged 954,000 viewers.

That was significantly higher than the 505,000 viewers averaged by non-Fever games.

As a result, some fans began to wonder whether the Fever had grown beyond relying solely on Caitlin Clark’s star power. After all, even without their franchise player, Indiana continued to produce numbers that most teams in the league could only dream of. However, the latest figures from the Fever-Liberty matchup serve as a reminder that Clark’s influence remains in a category of its own.

That said, with Caitlin Clark back on the court in 2026, these latest numbers show she remains one of the biggest draws in the WNBA.

In fact, that influence was even recognized by TIME Magazine as they named the 6-foot guard one of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports alongside names such as LeBron James and Lionel Messi.