Image Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

Fever-Aces Game 5 Breaks WNBA Viewership Records, Becomes Most Watched Semifinals in League’s History

Image Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

The 2025 WNBA semifinals series between the Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces broke viewership records. The series that saw the Aces defeat the Fever 3-2 in a hard-fought battle, became the most-watched WNBA semifinals ever on ESPN. The series saw a surge of a whopping 57% viewers, fetching over 1.3 million viewers across multiple channels, including ABC, ESPN & ESPN2.

Notably, the 2025 WNBA season has already shattered viewership record, and became the most-watched regular season in the league’s history, as per ESPN. It recorded an average of 1.3 million viewers in 25 regular season games, which is six percent more from last season’s record. The ground-breaking regular-season is followed by an unparalleled playoffs season, which averaged 1.1 million viewers, 15% more than earlier.

ESPN delivered the most-watched #WNBA Semifinals EVER 👏

🏀 @IndianaFever vs @LVAces Game 5 averaged 1.8M viewers (Peak: 2.1M)
🏀 Semifinals up 57% YoY
🏀 #WNBAPlayoffs up 15% YoY pic.twitter.com/edXhzp012k
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 2, 2025

Moreover, the Game 5 between the Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces averaged 1.8 million viewers, becoming the most-watched WNBA semifinals game in 27 years. The game recorded a peak of 2.1 million viewers. In addition, the WNBA Countdown Presented by Google has averaged 411K viewers to-date, which is 20% up from earlier.

WNBA Viewership Continues to Grow Despite Caitlin Clark’s Absence

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is known for bringing a revolution in the women’s basketball sphere. Ever since the 2024 Draft, the viewership data kept rising in the WNBA, and there is no stopping. The 2024 WNBA Draft became the most-watched WNBA telecast since 2000 with an average of 2.45 million viewers. Not only this, but the WNBA delivered its most-watched regular season in 24 years, as well as becoming the highest-attended season in 22 years.

Clark wreaked havoc ever since she donned the Fever jersey, and played a critical role in the popularity of the league. Such is the impact of ‘Caitlin Clark Effect’ that the league fetched record-breaking viewers in 2025 despite her absence. Notably, the 23-year-old was limited to only 13 games this regular season due to her multiple injuries. She was sidelined from the regular season in July, but despite that people continued to watch and made this season a huge success.

2025 WNBA Playoffs

Indiana Fever

Las Vegas Aces

Garima Ranawat

Garima is a sports writer with around two years of experience in Indian sports and a newfound interest in the NBA. Inspired by the leadership of cricketing legend MS Dhoni, she wishes to bring in newer perspectives to the NBA fanatics with her writing.