Caitlin Clark’s first professional basketball game was a big ratings draw.

According to Sports Media Watch, 2.13 million people tuned in to ESPN2 and ESPN+ to watch Clark’s Indiana Fever squad take on the Connecticut Sun. ESPN’s NHL playoff game, meanwhile, drew 1.99 million viewers.

It’s the largest audience for a WNBA game only broadcast on cable. The top 10 WNBA games in viewership all aired on NBC, available over the air.

Clark’s debut is slightly behind No. 10 all-time, a 1999 contest between the Houston Comets and New York Liberty that registered 2.46 million viewers. Interestingly, the 2024 WNBA Draft is the league’s 11th-largest audience, with 2.45 million viewers tuning into ESPN on April 15.

As for the game, viewers saw Clark’s Fever fall 92-71 to the Sun. When it comes to Clark props, the oddsmakers had a solid feel for what kind of game to expect.

The rookie from Iowa played 32 minutes, scoring 20 points on 5-of-15 shooting from the field, making 4-of-11 3-point attempts and 6-of-6 free throws. Clark added 3 assists and 2 steals to her line, which also included 10 turnovers.

Caitlin Clark Fever and growing the game

Clark played a significant role in growing women’s college basketball, particularly the NCAA Tournament, into a ratings juggernaut.

Clark regularly makes a point of helping grow the game of women’s college basketball. Plenty of women’s basketball observers, fans and media members, are asking what kind of impact Clark will have for both the college and pro games.

Will women’s college basketball games still draw large audiences in 2024-25 now that Clark is playing professionally? Will the fans who tuned in to watch Clark and the Hawkeyes become WNBA fans?

Sports Media Watch notes that the Clark audience doesn’t appear to be a WNBA audience, at least yet. The Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces played in the game that followed the Fever-Sun contest, and drew an audience of just 446,000 viewers.

The Fever next play the Washington Mystics on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be available streaming on Prime Video.