WNBA breaking viewership records, with and without high-profile controversies, beefs

The WNBA game Sunday between the Indian Fever and Chicago Sky averaged 3.31 million viewers and peaked at 3.82 million viewers – making it the league's most-watched regular-season game since opening weekend in 1997. 

Viewers tuned in long before the third-quarter, court-side argument between the Sky's DiJonai Carrington and spectator Enes Kanter Freedom, a former NBA player who says he was to play in the Womens National Basketball League to apparently bring attention to the league's rules about transgender players. 

The league has no known transgender players, but the issue became the focal point for the WNBA recently with star player Sophie Cunningham raising such concerns, sparking a high-profile culture war.

The popularity of the Fever's Caitlin Clark, in her second year, has driven up viewership. 

However, her immediate popularity, after a spectacular college career, did not give her hands-off, star status. And as a result, hard fouls on her by opposing players also sparked controversy – with on-court arguments and related fouls grabbing most of the headlines. 

Indiana's July 12 game against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces averaged 2.64 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, Fox News reported. 

Clark and the Fever had already broken all-time WNBA viewership records on CBS, ESPN, ION and Prime Video, with the Aug. 16 Fever-Dream game on ESPN also becoming the largest cable audience in league history.

As the postseason approaches, viewership numbers are likely to go up too. If the Fever meet the Dream in the playoffs, the series could break the league's viewership records.