The WNBA is quite clearly seeing a surge in television viewers and, contrary to what Angel Reese might like you to believe, Caitlin Clark appears to be the primary driver behind those numbers.
Outkick founder Clay Travis posted numbers on his X social media account which he suggests show the Indiana Fever megastar is “by herself … nearly tripling (the) rest of WNBA” in bringing eyeballs to the game.
Travis writes that the numbers are in for the 2024 season thus far and they show games featuring Clark see 1.099 million viewers on average. Those without her are averaging 414,000 viewers.
That is solid news for the league considering games last season averaged just 301,000 viewers.
Travis notes, however, that “Caitlin Clark is driving almost all TV growth.”
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Caitlin Clark Is Driving Ratings
While some might suggest Reese is on equal footing with Caitlin Clark when it comes to ratings, reality tells a different story.
The rivalry itself certainly generated some numbers. The first matchup between Reese’s Chicago Sky and Clark’s Fever averaged 1.53 million viewers on ESPN.
So that proves it takes two, right? Not so fast. As Awful Announcing reports, the Sky-Fever game represents “the league’s fourth-largest audience of the last 22 years.”
But … “All four of those games have come this season, and all have involved the Fever and Caitlin Clark.”
Reese is nowhere to be found in the top three watched WNBA games of the past two decades, while Clark’s imprint can be found in all of them.
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Sorry, Angel
In addition to the television ratings, Bounding Into Sports has revealed that Caitlin Clark is dominating actual ticket sales for road games.
All of this will come as a shock to Reese, who recently overinflated her own value to the league.
“I know I’ll go down in history. I’ll look back in 20 years and be like: ‘Yeah, the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball isn’t just because of one person. It’s because of me, too,’” she said.
“And I want you to realize that.”
The numbers simply are not backing her up.
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