{"id":107292,"date":"2025-07-31T10:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T10:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107292\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T10:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T10:22:12","slug":"wnba-viewership-up-big-for-indiana-fever-chicago-sky-despite-caitlin-clark-and-angel-reese-missing-from-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107292\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA viewership up big for Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky despite Caitlin Clark AND Angel Reese missing from lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ABC enjoyed a fruitful weekend for viewership figures of Indiana Fever against Chicago Sky despite key stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese both missing.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday the two franchises faced off in the United Center, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/topic\/indiana-fever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fever<\/a> coming away with a 93-78 victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/topic\/chicago-sky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sky.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Indiana Fever players Lexie Hull (#10) and Sophie Cunningham (#8) embracing.\" height=\"960\" width=\"768\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-1012995325.jpg\" data-caption=\"ABC had history-making viewing figures for Indiana Fever's regular season clash with Chicago Sky on Sunday\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-1012995325.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>ABC had history-making viewing figures for Indiana Fever&#8217;s regular season clash with Chicago Sky on SundayCredit: Getty<a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Three WNBA All-Stars walking on the court.\" height=\"720\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-1013466457.jpg\" data-caption=\"That was despite the absence of star names Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-1013466457.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>That was despite the absence of star names Angel Reese and Caitlin ClarkCredit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>Both teams were missing key players in the form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/who\/caitlin-clark\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clark<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/who\/angel-reese\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reese<\/a> through injury, but that did not stop viewers from tuning in for the match.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNPR\/status\/1950266698315259910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1950266698315259910%7Ctwgr%5E95e5036d76145faacb554f8cb1b6b1cd291070cc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fawfulannouncing.com%2Fwnba%2Finjuries-caitlin-clark-angel-reese-abc-huge-audience-fever-sky.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"ESPN PR (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ESPN PR<\/a>, the regular-season game had an average viewing audience of 1.5 million, with 1.7m at its peak.<\/p>\n<p>And while the presence of the two star players could have brought even more viewers to the screens, it was still a significant night in terms of the figures. <\/p>\n<p>The July 27 showdown was the 6th most-watched regular season game on ABC ever. <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, it was their 4th most-watched regular season game of this season so far.<\/p>\n<p>The figures also represent a 17 per cent rise in average viewership compared to the average <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/topic\/wnba\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WNBA<\/a> viewing figures for ABC last season.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, ESPN report a six per cent rise compared to last season across all their platforms when it comes to WNBA viewership.<\/p>\n<p>Clark and Reese have undoubtedly been a huge part of the increase in interest in the women&#8217;s game since their rookie seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to their arrival in 2024, the WNBA had gone well over ten years without reaching a seven-figure audience. <\/p>\n<p>The Fever in particular, have benefited from Clark&#8217;s presence, with many games drawing over one million viewers with or without the guard, who was the first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft.<\/p>\n<p>Caitlin Clark&#8217;s WNBA All-Star Status in Doubt After Reaggravating Groin Injury<\/p>\n<p>Clark, 23, has struggled with injuries this season. <\/p>\n<p>She has now missed five consecutive games after being unable to compete against the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>This run also includes the WNBA All-Star game.<\/p>\n<p>Clark admitted the injuries have started to take their toll on her mental <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-sun.com\/topic\/health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">health<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, a recent update from team medics confirmed there were no additional problems identified.<\/p>\n<p>But they did not give a timeline on when she could return.<\/p>\n<p>Although a new report from ESPN suggested her return may not be until mid-August after she went to see a specialist about her recurring issues.<\/p>\n<p>The Fever are now embarking on a four-game road trip and it is unclear whether she will return to action during any of these games. <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Reese returned to action for Sky against the Washington Mystics on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>But the 23-year-old&#8217;s return was unable to stop the team from sliding to a sixth straight defeat, as the Mystics&#8217; Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen became the first rookie duo in team history to score 20 or more points in the same game.<\/p>\n<p>How the WNBA works<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content--intro\">THE 2024 WNBA season features 12 teams with the regular-season running from May 14 to September 9.<\/p>\n<p>Each team plays 40 regular-season games &#8211; four against five teams from the same conference and two teams from the other conference, and three games against the remaining four teams.<\/p>\n<p>The top eight teams in the league standings qualify for the playoffs &#8211; regardless of what conference they&#8217;re in.<\/p>\n<p>The playoffs will use a best-of-three format in the first round while the semifinals and WNBA Finals are best of five.<\/p>\n<p>This season also includes a month-long break for the Paris 2024 Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>The Las Vegas Aces are defending back-to-back WNBA champions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC enjoyed a fruitful weekend for viewership figures of Indiana Fever against Chicago Sky despite key stars Caitlin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1496,233,1497,234,27760,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-107292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-angel-reese","9":"tag-caitlin-clark","10":"tag-chicago-sky","11":"tag-indiana-fever","12":"tag-section-sportbasketball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}