[The Athletic] There is one guarantee when Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese meet on the court: People will watch. Saturday’s Sky-Fever showdown drew 2.7 million viewers on ABC, believed to be the most-viewed WNBA regular-season game in 25 years.

26 comments

1. nothing will EVER beat **politics** when it comes to viewership and ratings/clicks.

   this is the most absurd yet insane proof of it ive ever seen.

   *we have somehow turned steph curry vs anthony bennett into a rivalry*

   im stunned lmao

2. Race wars do BIG ratings just ask CNN

3. Clark plays tonight at 7pm EST on NBA TV btw

4. Nothing that basketball fans enjoy more than petty drama

5. That’s actually pretty wild, this year’s average NBA regular season viewership on ESPN/ABC was 1.53 million.

6. Stephen Curry vs. Andre Drummond

7. angel reese flopped extremely hard on a normal play, harassed caitlin after the fact and got herself into millions of headlines off the back of caitlin AGAIN….

   angel is playing the game very well, and im not talking basketball. shes horrible at that.

8. I dont really understand the allure of Angel Reese considering her play is uhhh unaesthetic hoops

9. hydrogen bomb vs. coughing baby

10. More people are interested in a random WNBA game than the NHL playoffs. What a world.

11. And after the shitstorm on social media after that game, it’s only going to intensify

12. People are uniquely weird about Angel Reese

13. off the court they are very professional about each other. I don’t know why people wanna make this a big thing.

14. This headline is misleading. It was the season opener for Caitlin Clark.
    Were there some extra viewers because of Reese? Yes. CC alone still would have gotten massive numbers though.

15. Media narrative = money even if there’s no actual sports rivalry due to difference in team strength.

    Reese is also extremely popular in her own right even if she isn’t better than Clark. However, at times star power trumps skill and that’s fine for a league that’s only just starting to pick up viewership.

    That said, the media narrative around forcing race issues here needs to fucking die. Even the players are sick of it.

16. It’s just CC. Nobody cares about AR games against anyone else. Fever will have high ratings tonight also.

    CC is literally the female equivalent to the Steph Curry effect.

17. This is so damn manufactured it’s crazy as a viewer.

    Reese wants a rivalry (as far as I can tell), Clark doesn’t care in the slightest IMO, and the legacy and independent media outlets are FIENDING for a storyline.

    Is it a marketing thing? I don’t know.

18. Caitlin Clark is what people wanted Jimmer Fredette to be.

19. i watched legitimately not believing how the sky were scoring <15 pts per quarter. that was wild.

20. It’s about Clark, not the rivalry.

    In San Francisco the cheapest tickets for Valkyries vs Fever on a Thursday night are $125 on stubhub. That’s for the nosebleeds.

    For Liberty vs Valkyries the following Weds it’s $33. For Sky vs Valkyries on a Friday it’s $41.

    This is the Caitlin Clark effect. She has a 3-4x impact on the draw as compared to any other player/team. There’s no point in dancing around it.

21. It’s compelling shit. Also, Ms. Clark is a generational talent. This sport needs a Michael Jordan. (WNBA)

22. And people laugh when I say it’s all just wrestling. At least betting websites aren’t screwing up my great sport. 😎

23. People watch CC to see greatness. People equally watch AR to hate watch. AR is a heel. Just look how popular those “Angel Reese layup BAAAAAAANG!” videos are. Put the two together, it’s ratings magic.

24. That’s crazy

25. 2.7 million people tuned in to watch Angel Reese go 5/14 for 12 points as her team racked up a whopping 58 off a 29 FG% in a 35 point blowout

    Now that’s good basketball!!

26. lol, except CC will get almost that many views on every tv game this year and Reese will never reach that level again until the next time she plays CC. Its like Steph Curry vs. Kendrick Perkins.