How Angel Reese & Catilin Clark helped to set another WNBA viewership record

It’s no secret that sports fans love a good rivalry. Whether we’re talking golf, Formula 1, soccer, the NFL or tennis, the fact remains that a duel between top talents is always enthralling. With that in mind, the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese appear to have got the memo.

How big was Clark vs Reese round 3?

On Sunday the Chicago Sky were able to come out on top in an intense game against the Indiana Fever which ended 88-87. Of course, the teams were simply the backdrop for what has become one of the most talked about rivalries in American sports right here and now: Angels Reese vs Caitlin Clark.

Indeed, in what was the third meeting between the two highly coveted rookies, the game became the most-watched WNBA game since 2001 and without doubt, that’s down to the rivalry between the former LSU star (Reese) and the woman she bested in last season’s NCAA championship game, former Iowa star and No. 1 overall pick in this year’s WNBA Draft, Caitlin Clark. According to ESPN, some 2.3 million people tuned into Sunday’s matchup and with that, were witness to Reese’s career-high 25 points and 16 rebounds, while Clark notched 17 points and 13 assists in an impressive albeit losing effort.

For perspective, the previous meeting between the teams drew 2.252 million average viewers with the game peaking with close to 3 million viewers, according to CBS Sports. To be clear, this was the most-viewed game ever on ESPN and what’s more, is the third game to hit that mark in this season alone which is only six weeks in.

Those numbers follow on from a healthy trend that we’ve seen in the WNBA this year with no less than nine games passing the million viewer mark for the campaign so far. When considering the fact that the league went almost two decades without a single game registering those numbers, the effect of Clark and Reese can’t be denied.