The WNBA Has a New Must-Watch Superstar - and Her Name Isn't Caitlin Clark
For two years, one name has owned the WNBA, Caitlin Clark.
Viewership nearly tripled in a single season during her 2024 rookie year, averaging 1.32 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and CBS, up from a modest 462,000 the year prior.
Clark accounted for a reported 26.5% of all WNBA economic activity in 2024, including attendance, merchandise, and television.
And in 2025, even while sidelined for much of the season with injury, Clark’s gravity kept pulling fans in.
Fever games averaged 1.26 million viewers. Non-Fever games surged 37% year-over-year. The league’s foundation had been laid.
But with other new stars emerging, is Clark still the face of the league?”
On Sunday, May 24, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Dallas Wings rolled into New York and dismantled the 2024 champion Liberty, 91-76, in a dominant performance.
Paige Bueckers dropped 24 points on 54% shooting. Her backcourt partner and fellow UConn teammate Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft, went off for a season-high 24 of her own, including a scorching 17-point third quarter in which she buried five consecutive 3-pointers.
The game aired on NBC and Peacock, and the viewers showed up.
The Wings-Liberty matchup reportedly averaged 1.3 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched game of the 2026 season, behind only the Wings-Fever opening weekend showdown on ABC (2.49 million, according to the WNBA).
Not a Caitlin Clark game. Not a Fever game. A Paige Bueckers game. On NBC.
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Bueckers is in her second season and is already a force of nature.
She’s averaging 19.3 points, 5.0 assists, and 3.0 rebounds on an efficient 52.2% from the field and 48.3% from 3.
She was the 2025 Rookie of the Year. She’s the engine of a Dallas franchise that went from worst-in-the-league to legitimate title contender in a calendar year. And now she’s headlining the second-biggest TV audience of 2026, without Clark.
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The WNBA’s $2.2 billion, 11-year media rights deal with NBC Sports was built on the promise that the league’s star power extends beyond any single player.
Sunday just proved it. Bueckers and Fudd are appointment television, and everybody now knows it.
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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 8:02 PM.