WNBA playoff ratings drop after Caitlin Clark goes home

First weekend of WNBA playoffs rookie phenom Caitlin Clark It was a little quieter in terms of interest and viewing.

Afterwards Clark breaks WNBA record His first playoff game against the Connecticut Sun on Sept. 22 had 1.84 million viewers, and he followed that up with another record audience of 2.54 million viewers for Game 2 as he competes in the NFL on Sunday. Clark and the Indiana Fever lost both of those games; but is sending Clark home for the offseason.

Now, the remaining teams competing for the WNBA title are the New York Liberty, defending champion Las Vegas Aces and MVP A’ja Wilson, the Sun and Minnesota Lynx.

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ESPN announced that 929,000 viewers tuned in for the first game between the Aces and Liberty, a rematch of last year’s WNBA finals between two of the league’s most popular and successful teams. This is 50% less than the Fever’s Game 1 against the Sun. Still, that was historically good for any WNBA playoff game not involving Clark, as it was better than the TV numbers for the final games between the two teams last year.

Meanwhile, the viewership of Game 1 of the Sun-Lynx series was around 650,000.

Both of those games fell well behind some of Clark’s regular season games in terms of viewership. In early September, Clark’s Indiana Fever played in front of a TV audience of 1.26 million viewers in a game against the Minnesota Lynx played simultaneously with the Week 1 Friday night NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. .

A total of 20,711 fans came to Capital One Arena for Clark’s first regular-season finale against the Washington Mystics on September 19, setting a new record for the highest-attended WNBA regular-season contest.

On the TV front, Clark has made the Fever the most-watched team in the WNBA by a wide margin. rookie yearAll 14 of the most-watched WNBA games of the season featured the Fever.

Clark’s teammate, point guard Kelsey Mitchell, told reporters in September that Clark was the reason a player was getting more attention and fans than before.

INTO CAITLIN CLARK’S IMPACT ON MEN’S BASKETBALL

“I think the truth is, I don’t think people would know without (Clark),” Mitchell said when asked about attracting more attention and fans this season. “He’s done an incredible job of bringing together his own fans and the people who support him, but for me, I kind of laugh about it and embrace it at the same time because I’ve always flown under the radar. I’ve always just kind of said he’s a very conservative, very introverted person, so Now I can see the other side of this.

Shooting guard Erica Wheeler told reporters that Clark’s presence this season has led to the team needing to be more resilient to scrutiny.

“All we do is have fun with Caitlin Clark, who doesn’t take anything seriously,” Wheeler said. “I always tell people that he actually has a childlike spirit. There are moments when we have to be serious, and we are, but most of the time we have fun. Because you have to understand that the outside world was really trying to get inside this building, but we didn’t let it.”

Fans who came to watch Clark during her rookie year had the opportunity to see the Iowa product break several league records en route to the WNBA Rookie of the Year award.

On the final day of the regular season, she broke the record for most points in a single season by a point guard in WNBA history.

Clark had previously broken the record for most points by a rookie and the league’s single-season assist record.

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Clark, the single-season record holder and league leader in assists this year, became the youngest player to lead the league in assists.

Clark also led the league in 3-pointers made this year, making 122 points, second most in a single season.

Moreover, she broke the record for the most All-Star votes of any player in WNBA history and became the first rookie to record a triple-double.

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