Indiana Fever wrap up historic season with record attendance, viewership driven by Caitlin Clark

The GIST: When Caitlin Clark declared for the WNBA Draft, interest in the Indiana Fever — one of the WNBA’s worst teams in 2023 — spiked overnight. Now that Clark has a full season under her belt, the regular-season numbers prove just how much she changed the WNBA — and there’s still more to come in the postseason. Fever dream high.

Last season: Indiana frequented the bottom of WNBA table for the last several years, landing the franchise back-to-back No. 1 draft picks in 2023 and 2024. Despite nabbing South Carolina phenom Aliyah Boston last year, the Fever ranked second-to-last in W home attendance with an average of 4K fans and only one of its 40 games aired on ESPN in 2023.

2024 viewership: Per Sportico, 21 of the 24 WNBA broadcasts this season with over 1M viewers featured Clark. Before this year, the WNBA hadn’t crossed the 1M viewership threshold for any single game since 2008. Increased access helped boost these numbers: The W put 38 of the Fever’s 40 games on national TV in 2024. Ready for their close-up.

2024 attendance: This season, the Fever packed the house when hooping at home, averaging a WNBA–record 17,035 fans. And Clark didn’t just drive attendance in Indiana — every team’s attendance improved this year. The Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury welcomed historic crowds when hosting the Fever, and average league-wide attendance was at its highest since 1999.

• In order to make these records possible, several WNBA teams flexed their venues for increased capacity when playing against Clark. For example, the Aces can only host 12K at its home court, but moved a July matchup to T-Mobile Arena that welcomed a record 20,366 fans.

2024 postseason: Clark helped the Fever reach the playoffs for the first time since 2016, meaning the Clark Effect will also extend to postseason action. Indiana’s first playoff game — an away loss to the Connecticut Sun yesterday — drew 8,910 fans, and according to TickPick, the cheapest seats for the first-round matchup cost more than the cheapest tickets for all 2023 WNBA Finals games.

• The Fever likely won’t make a deep playoff run, but Clark will remain a draw in early rounds, which should influence the W’s postseason viewership and attendance averages. And again, she didn’t just boost the profile for her team — the entire league has benefitted from increased interest in the women’s game. She is the moment.