In a Wednesday release celebrating its 2026 season, the WNBA reported gains in television audiences and attendance. Its network-by-network audience figures showed the Indiana Fever, featuring Caitlin Clark, in the most-watched regular-season game on each of the seven platforms listed: ABC, CBS, ESPN, ION, NBC and Peacock, USA Network, and Amazon Prime Video.
The supplied report does not include the audience figures for each platform’s top game. It does identify another prominent Fever broadcast: Indiana’s July 12 game against Las Vegas drew 2.64 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, the second-largest regular-season audience of the year. The Fever’s August matchup with Chicago ranked first, according to the report.
The release also said five regular-season games on ABC and ESPN each drew more than two million viewers, with Indiana playing in all five. Across the season, 51 telecasts averaged at least one million viewers, compared with 19 the previous year. Nine games exceeded two million viewers, up from four in 2025.
The increase extended beyond Fever games. Sports Media Watch figures cited in the source put the average audience for non-Fever regular-season broadcasts on ABC and ESPN at 984,000, a 24% rise from the prior year.
The source also cited ESPN’s historical figures for its networks. In 2023, before Clark joined the league, WNBA regular-season games averaged 440,000 viewers on ESPN’s networks, the outlet’s strongest regular-season average in 17 years. In 2024, Clark’s rookie season, the average climbed to 1.2 million, a 170% increase, according to ESPN.
The figures point to the Fever’s substantial presence in the league’s largest television audiences, while the reported growth in non-Fever broadcasts indicates viewership gains were not limited to Indiana games. The supplied data do not establish how many viewers began following the WNBA because of Clark, or whether they continued watching other teams.
Indiana’s season has ended, but the league’s season summary used the team’s audience results as part of its account of television performance. The source material does not provide a complete network-by-network table or clarify the methodology behind each platform’s audience measurement.
