Although Caitlin Clark was on the sidelines due to injury for most of the season, data shows she still had an impact on the league.

According to Basketball Reference's annual year review, charting various metrics like most reviewed team pages and player pages by state, one metric stood out more than the others.

While the Indiana Fever was nowhere on the map for 2023, the tables turned in 2025. They became the most visited page in 41 states across the United States!

This comes on the back of the Las Vegas Aces winning the WNBA Championship. The last time they won (2023), they were the most visited team.

It may not be a surprise to most fans. After Clark signed on for the Indiana Fever in 2024, they ended the year with Clark being the most visited page on the website, and the Fever had just slightly less dominance with 47 states.

But the Caitlin Clark effect doesn't define the WNBA

Caitlin Clark brought the sport an incredible amount of attention back in 2024, but it wasn't just her. The WNBA sustained itself in 2024, even without Clark playing for most of the season.

In the regular season alone, viewership was up 6% (1.3 million). For the post-season, it stood at 5% (1.2 million viewers). And that same attention was clear during the Finals.

Game 1 kicked things off with 1.9 million viewers, the highest figure in 28 years for a Finals' first game. And for the remainder of the Finals, it stayed around 1.5 million.

Perhaps it can best be summed up by A'ja Wilson's words after winning the TIME Athlete of the Year Award.

"The biggest thing for us, and why I was so happy, is that we continue to rise to the occasion. This was just a matter of time for us to really bloom and blossom. Because we have been invested in each other and our craft for a very long time. It was just like, ‘They’re going to pay attention.’"

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Fatema Kapasi

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar