NEW YORK — ESPN's broadcast of the Connecticut Sun's game against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever had the highest viewership for a WNBA game on the network.
The Sun's 92-71 victory over the Fever in Clark's WNBA debut on the league's opening night on Tuesday averaged 2.1 million viewers on ESPN2, ESPN+ and Disney+, including a maximum of 2.3 million viewers between 7:45 p.m. and 7:59 p.m. pm That surpassed ESPN's previous mark of nearly 1.5 million viewers for a Phoenix Mercury-Connecticut Sun game on May 22, 2004, in Diana Taurasi's rookie season.
The second game between Phoenix and two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces averaged 464,000 viewers, with the two games averaging 1.28 million viewers – a 192% increase over last year's league average for broadcasts on ESPN.
Clark set the all-time NCAA record at Iowa last season and she was a big reason why a record 18.9 million viewers tuned in to the national championship game, which her Hawkeyes lost to undefeated South Carolina. Clark's arrival to the WNBA is already a big boost for the league. The WNBA draft had record viewership and three teams have already moved their games to larger arenas to keep up with demand for tickets to see her play.
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
