Indiana Fever Draw WNBA Ratings Interest Despite Caitlin Clark's Absence

The Indiana Fever's June 3 game against the Washington Mystics will mark the third consecutive contest that superstar guard Caitlin Clark is missing because of a left quad strain. When news about this injury broke, the Fever made it clear that Clark was going to miss at least two weeks, which would keep her sidelined for at least four games.

The Fever have struggled in these first two Clark-less contests, losing to both the Mystics and the Connecticut Sun. And not only did the team struggle on the court, but interest in watching Indiana play saw a marked decline. This was demonstrated by the Fever's May 28 loss to Washington, where there was a 39% drop in average viewership (it averaged 357,000 viewers) compared to Clark's most recent active game.

However, the Fever still drew considerable interest despite Clark being sidelined, as that May 28 contest was the 10th most-viewed WNBA game in NBA TV's history.

And a June 3 article from Sports Media Watch revealed similar interest in Indiana's May 30 game against the Sun. The article wrote, "Regional WNBA action featuring Sun-Fever in most markets averaged 851,000 viewers on ION Friday night, marking the network’s largest audience of the young season and a 119% increase over the comparable window last year (389K). Caitlin Clark missed the game due to injury."