According to ESPN, WNBA playoff ratings are up 142% compared to last season

The WNBA playoffs are seeing monster ratings, and it's probably not just the Caitlin Clark effect.

Ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday, ESPN released a collection of ratings showing a significant increase in viewership across the league. In the 17 playoff games broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, the WNBA averaged 970,000 viewers, a 142% increase over last season.

The numbers represent the highest viewership since the WNBA's first season in 1997.

It was very easy to cite Clark for the WNBA's ratings jump this season, but not so much in the WNBA playoffs.

Granted, the playoff games Clark played for the Indiana Fever were both record-breaking, with Game 2 drawing an unprecedented audience of 2.5 million. However, ESPN notes that the next round – the semifinals featuring the league's top four regular-season teams, the New York Liberty, Minnesota Lynx, Connecticut Sun and Las Vegas Aces – averaged a combined 850,000 viewers.

That's reportedly a 99% increase from last season's semifinals, a number every league in the industry would hope to achieve. Clark didn't play in any of those games, although she could at least be credited with helping to build an audience that the league was then able to partially retain.

In the semifinals, the Liberty edged the Aces after losing to them in the 2023 WNBA Finals, and the Lynx outlasted the Sun in a five-game series. Game 1 of the finals between the Liberty and Lynx is scheduled for Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET, with the Liberty as -275 favorites for the game at BetMGM.