Caitlin Clark creates WNBA ratings tug-of-war as CBS, NBC tout dueling viewership records

Host of 'The Sage Steele Show' Sage Steele criticizes WNBA officiating and its impact on Caitlin Clark. She argues the league's mishandling of Clark and consistent no-calls for egregious fouls are detrimental to the sport.

Caitlin Clark’s popularity has reached a new level.

It’s no longer noteworthy simply because she delivers another massive television audience. Now, major networks are simultaneously claiming that they carried the most-watched WNBA game of the season. Of course, both games included Clark and the Indiana Fever.

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CBS Sports announced Tuesday that the July 18 game between the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty averaged 2.579 million viewers and peaked at just over 3 million.

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever produced two WNBA audiences exceeding 2.5 million viewers in six days, with CBS and NBC both claiming the most-watched game of the 2026 season. (Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

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The network called it the most-watched WNBA game on any network this season and the second-most-watched WNBA game on any network since 2000.

There’s just one issue.

NBC made essentially the same announcement six days earlier.

NBC said the Fever’s July 12 game against the Las Vegas Aces averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 2.64 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The network called it the most-watched WNBA game of the 2026 season and the second-most-watched WNBA regular-season game since 2000.

So, which network actually carried the biggest WNBA game of the year?

Potentially both.

The difference comes down to how the audiences were