‘WNBA without Clark’: The league feels the hurt.” read the headline of USA Today after Clark’s injury heavily affected the numbers for the WNBA and the Indiana Fever. Who would have thought the WNBA would be on the front page of a national paper? But Clark has forced the world to pay attention to the league and her place in it.
It’s not a secret that the league has been heavily anchored to Clark’s popularity for its current boom over the last season and this one. Almost every viewership record and merchandise sales record has been somehow accredited to Clark, and ever since she was ruled out with a left quadriceps strain, the ticket prices took a nose-dive for the next four Fever games.
The change was even felt on streaming platforms, as 357,000 watched it on NBA TV, down from 581,000 watching last week’s Fever-Dream game. The pessimism seems to be growing in the WNBA community as Rachel De Mita has expressed her concern about the quality of basketball the Fever are currently playing.
She said on the latest episode on her Youtube Channel,“I think this number will continue to go down if we see a product like we saw from the Indiana Fever versus the Washington Mystics. That was not fun basketball to watch; it was super slow-paced, a lot of people seemed out of rhythm, and it was just a funky game. there wasn’t that much scoring. I feel like the viewership is going to continue to go down if the Fever can’t step it up and win a couple of these games.”
The Fever shot a mere 39.7% from the field and an abysmal 23.8% from three-point range against the Mystics, numbers that reflect not just cold shooting, but a team clearly missing the floor-spacing and playmaking spark that Clark brings. The second half of the game was particularly revealing. The Fever managed to shoot just 36% from the field over the final two quarters, which is an offensive stagnation that left them unable to mount a meaningful comeback.
With no credible outside shooting threat and minimal offensive creativity, Indiana looked stagnant and one-dimensional. Ball movement slowed, isolation attempts increased, and the Mystics capitalized on predictable possessions with solid perimeter defense. So, the drop is not all on clark as people tuned out after seeing Fever struggle so much without her. Many have even labeled them as a one-woman team.
That continued against the Connecticut Sun as they were being railroaded by the likes of Marina Mabrey and Tina Charles until some inspired play from DeWanna Bonner brought the Fever back into the game. They went 16-0 in a five-minute stretch that even gave them the lead but Saniya Rivers and Mabrey were in no mood to lose on the day as they eked out a two-point win.
Even with Clark’s absence, the franchise still drew a respectable crowd of 16,213 to Gainbridge Fieldhouse. That number reflects the residual excitement and support that Clark has generated for the team and women’s basketball as a whole. There are still fans who are staunch supporters of the franchise.
While official broadcast viewership numbers have yet to be released, early estimates suggest that the game may perform better than typical non-Clark WNBA games due to lingering public interest. Still, projections indicate that it will likely fall short of the ratings benchmark Clark set, underscoring just how dramatically she has raised the ceiling for the league’s media appeal.
This is not the first time Clark has caused ratings to drop, as her last year’s entry into the WNBA was a massive gain for the league but a heavy loss for the college circuit. The Iowa-South Carolina final pulled in 18.9 million viewers in 2024, by far the most in women’s Final Four history. It even outdrew the men’s championship that saw 14.8 million viewers. And in 2025, even with the stardom of Paige Bueckers, the national championship game saw just 8.5 million viewers, a 10 million drop, which is the biggest in the competition’s history. The WNBA is yet to feel the full brunt of this injury for Clark.
The WNBA set to feel the blow of Clark’s injury for its marquee rivalry
The WNBA is facing growing concerns over player health, with a spike in injuries early in the 2025 season. As of May 31, 2025, more than 50 players have missed games due to various injuries, including high-profile stars like Caitlin Clark, who is out with a quadriceps strain, and Paige Bueckers, who recently entered concussion protocol. The trend has intensified scrutiny on the league’s physical style of play and packed schedule, as teams scramble to adjust their rotations and maintain momentum.
“I will never understand why the league prides itself on “physicality.” Rachel A. DeMita said for the 10th time after Sophie Cunningham and Sydney Colson were helped to the dressing room after suffering injuries during the Connecticut Sun game last night. The physicality of the league has just cost us 23 players in the league who are currently out, including Paige Bueckers, who will miss two games with a concussion.
As we discussed, the most important of all has been Caitlin Clark’s absence. But the worst is yet to come for the league and the Indiana Fever, as Clark is set to miss the clash against the Chicago Sky. The rivalry has also been a big part of the league’s claim to fame, as their game this month made history as the most-watched WNBA broadcast in ESPN’s history, averaging 2.7 million viewers and peaking at 3.1 million.
The Fever’s recent matchup carried far more weight than a typical early-season game. Beyond the standings, it was poised to be another marquee moment in what’s quickly becoming one of the WNBA’s most talked-about rivalries: Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. Their history, intensified by a controversial foul from Clark and the subsequent WNBA investigation, had drawn significant media coverage and fan interest. The narrative tension alone had laid the groundwork for a ratings spectacle.
May 17, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) fouls Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese (5) in the second half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
With that context, this game had the potential to eclipse even their first meeting in viewership, particularly with the hype surrounding the rematch and the national media amplifying the drama. However, Clark’s injury removed the centerpiece of that storyline. While Angel Reese remains a major draw and the rivalry continues to capture attention, the absence of Clark inevitably diminished the game’s mass appeal.
CBS, which had scheduled the game for national broadcast, will likely see respectable numbers thanks to the buzz around Reese and the Fever-Sky tension, but it’s unlikely to match the explosive figures seen when Clark is active. By the time these teams meet again, the controversy may no longer dominate headlines, making this a missed opportunity for the network and the league to fully capitalize on the rivalry at its peak.
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