The WNBA’s opening day double earned a sizable slice of the national broadcast pie on a packed Tuesday night filled with crucial NBA and NHL postseason games.
Caitlin Clark’s regular-season album with the Indiana Fever against the Connecticut Sun attracted an average of 2.12 million people on ESPN2, making it the league’s most-watched match since 2001 when NBC broadcast the Memorial Day games between the Los Angeles Sparks and Houston Stars. Clark and her team led her team in scoring with 20 points, but the millions of fans who wanted to see the original school nova shine also saw a group story, DeWanna Bonner, continue to climb the WNBA’s all-time rating scoreboard, and star Alyssa Thomas notch her 12th career triple-double.
It would be a difficult task despite throwing every marketing and distribution tool in the Clark box; the New York Liberty’s victory over Lisa Leslie and the Los Angeles Sparks on June 21, 1997, set the record for the team’s all-time popularity history of 5.04 million. Without at least the NBA, a much clearer airport would have required a little clearer runway yet to reach the most popular WNBA game of the century, which was 2.73 million viewers watched on Memorial Day 2000 when the Liberty faced the royal Houston Comets. Both sports aired on NBC during a period when the W served as a supplement to the broadcaster’s NBA on NBC policy, rather than its own staged be, until 2002.
The strong televised competition held up against the Indiana vs. Connecticut game. Madison Square Garden was where the New York Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, and the scores hall was there on Tuesday night. The important match, in which the Knicks took at 3- 2 set guide, grabbed 4.88 million visitors. The Denver Nuggets ‘ NBA title defense defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves for a 3-2 set guide, continuing the TNT Sports doubleheader. That activity garnered 4.51 million total viewers.
The major ESPN network produced its unique Stanley Cup Playoffs double function, with the Boston Bruins surviving a flurry of eradication against the Florida Panthers and capturing 1.99 million people in the process. Edmonton tying its set with Vancouver pulled in under one million (989, 000 ) for the NHL’s drink. The Clark activity topped both in popularity.
Clark’s comeback may have received the actor treatment, but the Las Vegas Aces were putting their stamp on another title defense. On the up close of the double, only 464, 000 viewers saw the two- moment defending WNBA champions get their rings and take out an 89- 80 win over the Phoenix Mercury. Despite having a huge lead in Connecticut, this was a 47 % year over year decline from the comparable 2023 Mercury-Sparks opener, which saw Brittney Griner rejoin the league after missing the 2022 season while being detained in Russia. At the time, Griner’s return, which had 683, 000 viewers long after prime time on the East Coast, was the most- watched WNBA game on cable since June 1999.
Both WNBA games were broadcast live on Disney + in addition to the typical authenticated stream that has existed on ESPN+ since it first launched in 2019. They were the first and second non-animated live sporting events to be shown on the service since it launched in 2019. As of the time of publication, those totals were not made available.