Indiana’s Sept. 29 playoff win over the Las Vegas Aces averaged 1.42 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video and, despite being Caitlin Clark’s lowest-rated playoff game this season, still outdrew every reported non‑Fever first‑round broadcast.
That audience figure and the comparisons that follow come from Sports Media Watch, which compiled reported viewing numbers for first‑round games.
Sports Media Watch reported the largest audience for a first‑round game without the Fever was 1.40 million for Golden State’s Game 2 loss to Dallas on ESPN, a difference of roughly 20,000 viewers. Clark’s 1.42 million came on a streaming‑exclusive broadcast.
Two nights later, Indiana’s season‑ending loss to Las Vegas averaged 2.25 million viewers across USA Network and CNBC, Sports Media Watch reported, making it the second‑most‑watched WNBA first‑round playoff game on record. The most‑watched first‑round game on record was the Fever vs. Connecticut Sun Game 2 in 2024, which averaged 2.54 million on ESPN.
Sports Media Watch’s totals cover nine of the 10 first‑round games. The article notes a reported audience of 410,000 for Dallas–Golden State Game 1 on USA Network but says that figure does not include CNBC viewers. OutKick told the publisher it requested the combined USA/CNBC total and ESPN2’s Dallas–Golden State Game 3 audience but had not received a response by publication.
Across three games this postseason, Indiana’s contests averaged about 1.93 million viewers, compared with 949,000 for the six non‑Fever games with reported numbers, Sports Media Watch found — an average audience roughly 103% larger for Clark’s games than for those six other first‑round telecasts.
Sports Media Watch also highlighted same‑day comparisons on ABC’s opening Sunday, Sept. 27, when the Liberty–Lynx opener averaged 1.20 million viewers and the Fever–Aces opener averaged 2.11 million. On Prime Video, Washington–Atlanta’s opener averaged 425,000 viewers, while Clark’s Fever drew more than three times that figure on the same platform, the analysis said.
The article includes additional year‑to‑year comparisons cited by Sports Media Watch, including All‑Star Game audiences and Indiana’s viewership with and without Clark in prior playoff openers.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
