WNBA Ratings Reveal Clark’s Pulling Power

The 2025 WNBA All-Star Game drew 2.19 million viewers on ABC, making it the second-most-watched All-Star broadcast in league history. However, ratings fell 36% from the record-breaking 3.44 million in 2024 — despite occupying the same Saturday primetime slot for the third consecutive year.

The decline comes amid a key absence: Caitlin Clark, voted captain after her breakout 2024 debut, missed the game due to a groin injury just days before tip-off. Her non-appearance appears to have directly influenced the drop, reaffirming her role as the WNBA’s top viewership driver.

Clark’s commercial impact was visible elsewhere. Three of her 2025 regular-season games outperformed the All-Star Game:

• Chicago Sky at Fever (17 May, ABC) – 2.7M viewers
• New York Liberty at Fever (24 May, CBS) – 2.22M viewers
• Fever at Liberty (14 June, ABC) – 2.2M viewers

These numbers point to a broader trend: while the league continues to grow, individual star power remains a major ratings lever. The 2024 All-Star Game, which Clark played in, drew the third-highest audience in league history, trailing only two games from the WNBA’s inaugural season in 1997. It also became the most-watched WNBA broadcast of 2024, surpassing every WNBA Finals game that year.

The figures reinforce Clark’s status not just as a generational talent, but as a centrepiece of the league’s commercial strategy moving forward.

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