By: Nathan Tse
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are women basketball players who teamed up against the U.S. women’s national team for the WNBA All-Star Gameon Saturday, July 20, 2024 at the Footprint Center at Phoenix, Arizona. They won, but the crazy part was that they broke the record for most audience on TV on a WNBA All-Star Game.
According to Nielsen Media Research, that All-Star Game had 3.44 million views. The previous record was set in 2003, with only 1.441 million people watching. The all-star champions at that game included Lisa Leslie, a three-time WNBA MVP and a four-time Olympic gold medal winner, and others.
This All-Star Game was the most-watched WNBA game on ESPN network, the third-most watched WNBA game in history, the most watched WNBA All-Star Game since 2007, and the 17th WNBA game this year that had more than a million viewers. Caitlin Clark played in 15 of the games this year that had more than a million views. The two most watched games this season that were not All-Star Games were Indiana Fever (Caitlin Clark’s team) and Chicago Sky (Angel Reese’s team).
“This weekend’s extraordinary viewership underscores women’s sports’ exponential growth and ESPN is proud to showcase this incredible league and its exceptional athletes on such a grand stage,” said Julie Sobieski, ESPN SVP of League Programming and Acquisitions. This year is the 2nd year in a row ESPN officials opted to air a WNBA All-Star Game on ABC in prime time. This made the number of people watching grow a lot; there was a lot of action in that game. Arike Ogunbowale had a scoring barrage. She scored an All-Star Game record of 34 points in the second half. She claimed her second All-Star MVP in a game that made history.
In a nutshell, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are women who play basketball, and they made history in a game, and all this is to say is, in the future, there might be games with even more audience. But who knows? Anything could happen.
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5652893/2024/07/23/wnba-all-star-game-ratings-viewership/?source=nyt_sports&redirected=1