The battle of the last four No. 1 picks had fans counting down the days. There were just so many narratives as Indiana Fever faced the Dallas Wings. Caitlin Clark went up against Paige Bueckers, two of the most exciting point guards in the league. Fans awaited the return of the Clark-Aliyah Boston pick-and-roll after seeing it for just 13 games in 2025. Azzi Fudd, the latest No. 1 pick, made her WNBA debut as well. Naturally, this game has attracted millions of fans, breaking past records. 

Clark by herself has had a Michael Jordan-like impact on the WNBA. The ‘Caitlin Clark effect,’ as they call it. All the 4 most watched games since her arrival feature Clark. The All-Star game ratings went down from 3.44 million viewers with Clark present to 2.19 million, a 34% drop. As expected, her first WNBA game in months, coupled with a rival on the other side, brought millions of viewers, breaking a major ESPN record. 

“The May 9 Indiana Fever vs. Dallas Wings game is now the second most-watched WNBA regular season game ever across ESPN Networks, averaging 2.5 million viewers!”

This number is even more significant considering the time slot of this game was. The Wings-Fever game tipped off at 1 PM ET. The game delivered on its hype. Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers had 20 points each. They have been playing against each other since highschool. And as point guards, the Bueckers-Clark rivalry is set to level up the WNBA.

In an end-to-end offensive display, the Fever missed out on two buzzer beaters, losing 107-104. It was the first season opener in WNBA history where both teams scored 100 points. 

The only Bueckers vs. Clark clash in 2025 drew an average of 2.1 million viewers to ABC while peaking at 2.5 million viewers. So, there is a notable increase in their head-to-head viewership too.

However, the early afternoon tip-off might have still affected the viewership, as this number is actually a drop from the corresponding game last year.  When Clark’s Fever faced Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky teams against each other on the second day of 2025’s opening weekend, it drew 2.7 million viewers. The game set a record for the most-viewed WNBA regular-season game across ESPN networks and was the most-viewed WNBA regular-season game in 25 years. 

Yet, this is still superior to other games on the opening weekend. For comparison, the Suns-Mercury averaged 1.15M viewers, according to Richard Deitsch, while noting that “the blowout reduced that one for sure.” On USA Sports, the Aces vs. Sparks averaged 529K viewers on May 10 which was Up 18% vs. last year’s WNBA regular-season cable average viewership, per Megan Hall. 

The league is coming off its most-watched WNBA regular season on ESPN in history. Over 25 regular-season games, WNBA games on ESPN networks (which include ABC) averaged 1.3 million viewers in 2025. That was up 6% from last season’s record year, which saw an average of 1.2 million viewers across 24 games despite Clark playing only 13 games due to injuries. 

And with the new media deal kicking in, this number could bust all the barriers in the 2026 season as the league expands beyond the Indiana Fever. 

WNBA’s Growth Spreads Beyond Indiana Fever as Canada Delivers Massive Numbers 

The process of gaining an audience beyond the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark started last year. The league averaged 969,000 viewers across ESPN networks, Ion, and CBS, a 3% increase in viewership, according to Sports Media Watch.  However, Fever still had magnitudes more viewership than Non-Fever games. 

For example, Ion aired 8 Fever games, with only one featuring Clark, the network’s most-watched game of the year (1.25 million). Non-Fever games still saw a viewership bump but had a 505,000 viewership number on Ion, which was up nearly 15%. So, there is a lot of ground to catch up on. 

And the league is expected to do it fast with the new broadcast deal kicking in this year onwards. The $2.2 billion 11-year media deal the league inked two years ago (now estimated to be worth more than $3.1 billion) includes Disney (ABC, ESPN), NBCUniversal (NBC, Peacock), Amazon (Prime Video), Paramount (CBS), Scripps (Ion), USA Sports (USA Network) and NBA TV. The early signs are positive, as the WNBA has set records, with the first Toronto Tempo game drawing record viewers in Canada. 

“Per WNBA Canada, the Toronto Tempo vs Washington Mystics season opener on TSN was the most-watched WNBA regular season game ever in Canada,” wrote Chelsea Leite, a Toronto Tempo reporter. “Live coverage of the Tempo vs. Mystics game reached 1 million Canadian viewers on TSN and CTV2.”

The current approximate population of Canada is 40.42 million. That means around 1 in 40 Canadians watched Toronto Tempo debut in the WNBA which is a very impressive number. Such an impressive debut for its first international franchise will give the WNBA a further boost. However, this was the opening game, which tends to have higher numbers than the rest of the season. So, fans will get a better picture regarding its growth as the season goes on.