It had been more than seven months since Caitlin Clark played an organized game on national TV, and fans clearly missed her.
The preseason game between Clark and the Indiana Fever vs. the Brazil women’s national team drew 1.3 million viewers Sunday on ESPN, the network announced Tuesday. The exhibition contest, the first time ESPN televised a WNBA preseason game on its lead channel, drew more than the 1.2 million viewers ESPN averaged for all its regular-season WNBA games in 2024. Last season was the most-watched WNBA regular season on record.
According to The Athletic, only two NBA preseason games since 2010 eclipsed the viewership number of Sunday’s WNBA preseason game, both of which featured LeBron James. The most watched was in 2018 when the Warriors faced the Lakers, James’s first game with Los Angeles, which drew 2 million viewers. In 2017, James, who was still with the Cavaliers, drew 1.4 million viewers in a preseason contest against the Bulls.
While the outcome of Sunday’s game had no bearing on the regular season, the viewership was even more impressive considering the Fever blew out the Brazil women’s national team, 108–44, and Clark played just 19 minutes.
The game, which was played at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa, was the first game back for the 22-year-old at her alma mater since she entered the WNBA last year. The average resale ticket price for the game was $440, the most for any game Clark has played in, professionally or collegiately, according to data provided to FOS by ticketing technology company Victory Live.
The Fever will have a league-high 41 of 44 of their regular-season games nationally televised or streamed this season. Indiana’s season opener is May 17 against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky.
