Caitlin Clark Leads in the Over 50 Records Broken by the 2024 WNBA Season
The WNBA has seriously levelled up in 2024. Viewership took off with over 54 million unique watchers across various streaming platforms and an average of at least 1 million viewers across the 22 regular season games. As for the Finals Game 5 that was held yesterday, the contest between the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty broke the 25-year viewership record for the most-watched finals with over 3.3 million viewers, which is more than double last year’s game. Attendance numbers across the whole season were also sky high, with a 48 per cent increase from last season and the highest attendance in 22 years. As Nike’s new CEO and president Elliott Hill said in an interview, ‘I think it’s always a good time to be a women’s basketball fan, but what a time like now’.
Viewership and attendance were far from the only records blown out of the water, with over made by the women on court, including a whopping eleven from promising rookie Caitlin Clark, eight from the legendary Diana Taurasi, six from A’Ja Wilson and five from Angel Reese. Some of Clark’s records include the most assists in a WNBA game (19), the most assists in a season (337), the most points in a rookie season (769), and the most 3-point field goals made in a rookie season (122). It’s safe to say that the buzz generated when Clark was the top pick in the draft this year has been maintained, with the Indian Fever guard more than proving she was worth the hype. Taurasi on the other hand has simply maintained her dominance for another year, with the 20-year WNBA veteran extending eight records that she already holds, including the most 3-point field goals in a regular season, the most points scored in WNBA playoffs, and the most turnovers in the playoffs.
The records keep coming for the winning team as well, with the New York Liberty now holding the record for the longest time between a team’s first appearance in the WNBA finals and their first win (27 years!). They also got to finally shed the not-so-great record of being the team with the most WNBA finals appearances without a victory. The players also shone through, with Courtney Vandersloot breaking the record for the most overall assists in the WBNA playoffs and Breanna Stewart coming through with the record for the most steals in a single WNBA finals game (7).
The 2024 season of the WNBA will go down in the history books as the turning point for the women’s league, and we’re excited to see what else the game can achieve next year.
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