The 2025 WNBA All-Star Game ratings showed once again that the league is experiencing enormous growth, but Caitlin Clark is still undoubtedly its biggest needle-mover.
Saturday’s game drew 2.19 million viewers on ABC, according to Front Office Sports reporter Ryan Glasspiegel, the second-most-watched All-Star Game ever. The game drew 52% more viewers than the third-most-watched iteration of the event, which took place in 2003. It’s the third year in a row the WNBA All-Star Game has aired on ABC’s Saturday primetime slot. It drew 850,000 viewers in its first year in 2023.
The game is down 36% from last year, which drew a record-high 3.44 million viewers. Caitlin Clark made her All-Star debut last season and was named a captain for this year’s game, but missed the game after sustaining a groin injury days before All-Star weekend in Indianapolis.
Last year’s exhibition was the third-most-watched WNBA telecast ever, behind two games from the league’s debut weekend in 1997, per Sports Media Watch. It was the most-watched WNBA telecast of 2024, ahead of any WNBA Finals game or Indiana Fever contest.
However, the 2025 All-Star Game was outdrawn by three regular-season games this year, all of which have featured Clark:
- Chicago Sky at Fever, May 17: 2.7 million (ABC)
- New York Liberty at Fever, May 24: 2.22 million (CBS)
- Fever at Liberty, June 14: 2.2 million (ABC)
The 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge on Friday drew 1.32 million viewers on ESPN, the most-watched version of the event and up 90% from last year. Clark also missed Friday’s contest, which was supposed to be her first at the professional level.
The Liberty swept the Friday contests as Sabrina Ionescu would walk away with her second three-point win in three years, while Natasha Cloud won the Skills Challenge. Ionescu took home $62,575—which she said she’d split with Washington Mystics rookie and All-Star Sonia Citron—while Cloud secured $57,575. Only $2,575 of each of their winnings comes from the WNBA, while the rest ($60,000 for Ionescu, $55,000 for Cloud) was money the union independently secured in a deal with Aflac.
Return to Play
It likely didn’t help that this year’s game was not as competitive as last year’s, which was a battle between the U.S. Olympic team and the WNBA All-Stars. There was little defense played on both sides as the teams set a WNBA All-Star Game record for points (282).
Ionescu said after the game that it would have been “more competitive” if the WNBA gave teams a longer All-Star break. The season resumes Tuesday with ten teams in action, eight of which played Wednesday, the final day before the break, including the Atlanta Dream, who open with a road back-to-back.
Most NBA teams had at least one full week off for their All-Star break this year, except for those affected by schedule changes caused by the Los Angeles fires.
Ionescu said the All-Star schedule is another component to look at in CBA negotiations, which was the hot topic of the weekend. Every All-Star wore a shirt that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us” during the game’s warmups, two days after the first in-person meeting between the league, board of governors, and union.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert described the meeting as “constructive” during her press conference minutes before the game, while union board member Breanna Stewart called it a “wasted opportunity” Friday.
