WNBA ratings have fallen since Caitlin Clark and Fever left

The Caitlin Clark effect is still affecting the WNBA, despite the rookie All-Star and the Fever being eliminated by the Sun in the first round of the playoffs last week.

After Game 2 of the Fever-Sun opening round on Sept. 25 delivered the most-watched WNBA game ever on cable with 2.5 million viewers, the league saw fewer viewers entering its semifinal round.

Game 1 of the Liberty Aces Semifinal Series, a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals, drew 929,000 viewers on September 29.

Although viewership was down from the Fever-Sun first-round series, Game 1 of the Liberty-Aces semifinal series was the most-watched WNBA semifinal in 22 years.

Clark's first WNBA playoff game drew 1.84 million viewers as the Sun defeated the Fever in Game 1 on September 22, despite competing with the NFL on Sunday.

In Game 2, viewership peaked at 3.4 million.

The WNBA delivered its most-watched regular season in 24 years and finished with its highest attendance in 22 years after bringing in a 2024 draft class that included Clark, Sparks center Cameron Brink and Sky stars Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso was highlighted.

The league also set records in digital consumption and merchandise sales in 2024.

The college rivalry between Clark and Reese carried over to the WNBA, helping to increase viewership, attendance, revenue and social media engagement.

Reese led the LSU Tigers to their first championship in program history with a win over Clark and Iowa in 2023 – when the former LSU forward waved her hand in Clark's face, making the “You can't see me” gesture at the end of the game, which helped fuel the rivalry.

Iowa defeated LSU in the Elite Eight of this year's women's NCAA tournament.

After that, the WNBA experienced a meteoric rise, with teams moving their games to NBA arenas to accommodate fans.

The Fever-Mystics regular-season game on September 19 at Capital One Arena set a WNBA single-game attendance record with 20,711 fans.

It was one of three games that drew at least 20,000 fans this season – along with 20,366 for the Fever-Aces match on July 2 and 20,333 for the Indiana-Washington game on June 7.

The Fever's total home attendance of 340,715 fans was a single-season record for a WNBA team, surpassing the previous home attendance record of 250,565 set by the Liberty in 16 games in 2001.

In July, the WNBA reached a landmark media rights deal with The Walt Disney Company and Amazon Prime Video, as well as a new deal with NBCUniversal (NBCU) worth approximately $2.2 billion over 11 years.

In its 28th season, the WNBA drew a record of more than 54 million unique viewers across ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ION and NBA TV.

The record-breaking 22 game broadcasts during the regular season averaged at least one million viewers.

After the Fever recovered from a 1-8 start to the season, Clark helped Indiana to a playoff berth for the first time since 2016.

She did it by etching her name in the WNBA record book after becoming the NCAA's leading scorer for men's and women's basketball in March during her senior year at Iowa.

The Fever star set WNBA records for most assists in both a season (337) and a game (19).

Clark recorded the first two triple-doubles by a rookie in league history and set a rookie single-season record for points (769) and three-pointers made (122).