WNBA
ESPN News Services 4h

Fever-Sky most watched WNBA regular-season game since '00

WNBA, Indiana Fever, Chicago Sky

Saturday's game between the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky drew an average of 2.7 million viewers on ABC, making it the most watched WNBA regular-season contest in 25 years, per Sports Media Watch.

The game, which peaked at 3.1 million viewers, drew the league's second-largest average audience for any event, behind only last year's WNBA All-Star Game (3.44 million).

It was the largest regular-season audience for a WNBA game since Memorial Day 2000.

ESPN on Sunday also had its best "Sunday Night Baseball" audience in seven seasons as the New York Mets-New York Yankees rivalry averaged more than 2.53 million viewers and peaked at 3,018,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.

The Fever thrashed the rival Sky 93-58, with Clark recording a triple-double and picking up her first flagrant foul as a pro. Clark fouled Angel Reese to prevent a clear layup, and Reese was incensed and shouted at her for several moments after the whistle. Clark's foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 after review.

The WNBA is investigating allegations of hateful comments or noises made toward the players during the incident. A video shared on social media showed a male fan -- wearing a red replica Clark jersey with matching shorts -- sitting courtside and making high-pitched noises while Reese shot a free throw with 4:38 left in the third quarter.

On Sunday, the WNBA released a statement saying that it was "aware of the allegations" and looking into the matter.

Field Level Media contributed to this report.

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