Over 2 Million Americans Spoil Paige Bueckers’ WNBA Debut With Brutal Caitlin Clark Reality Check

They were supposed to step in together. Two top point guards of their class, driving their teams in freshman year and leading the race in marketability. “It’s been a while since you’ve had two kids that have had this kind of an impact, both on their teams and on the game itself nationally,” Geno Auriemma had noted back in 2021. However, it did not carry into the league exactly the same. Paige Bueckers delayed her entry, and Caitlin Clark took off early. It might be translating individually now, but the gap is a little too hard to ignore.

Caitlin Clark’s debut was mammoth-like. She proved her worth on the court and topped the charts that suggested the league’s growth. For Paige, it has been a little slower. She started her rookie campaign with a 10-point performance. And the viewership? 639,000 on Ion. That ranks second among the non-Caitlin Clark games Ion has ever aired. 

On the other hand, Caitlin Clark’s game a day later drew in 2.7 million viewers against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on ABC– the most-watched game ever on ESPN platforms, regular season or playoffs. WNBA regular-season games on ESPN platforms last year averaged 1.2 million viewers.

But it isn’t all bad if we search for the positives. Because the stage Clark and the 2024 class set? The UConn standout is continuing the momentum, a little slower, as it may be.

.@ionwnba’s opening night saw massive growth over the previous season! pic.twitter.com/D6HhN6jlRy

— Scripps Sports (@ScrippsSports) May 20, 2025

So the Bueckers debut was dwarfed by the already existing giant in the league. Her presence still impacted the viewership of the game. The Wings drew in more eyes than the first official game in which the Golden State Valkyries faced the Los Angeles Sparks. 581,000 viewers tuned in. Plus, the average of the two games sums up to 612,000 viewers, a 121% increase from last season’s double-header. So we are set for another record season but the Bueckers effect might not be as big as some people expect.

The expectations are sky high and not without good reason. The 2025 NCAA championship game against the South Carolina Gamecocks averaged 8.5 million viewers and peaked at 9.9 million on ESPN, making it the third-largest audience in women’s NCAA history. So we might get a hike this year, but it’s not going to be as drastic as 2024 since Clark has already brought those numbers up. Ion itself had recorded a 133% increase from 2023 through the 43 games it aired last season. 

Bueckers also had an underwhelming debut, dishing out 10 points while shooting 3-10 from the field. The Wings lost 99-84 against a much better and well-oiled team in the Minnesota Lynx. It’s inevitable that fandoms will put Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark head-to-head. That’s the nature of modern sports culture. Comparison fuels conversation, and social media thrives on rivalries. While this constant matchup could create challenges for Bueckers, she is trying not to let if effect her. 

“That’s what the media cares about,” she told Bustle. “That’s what everybody who watches basketball cares about. I used to be bothered by it. But I’ve done so much work on myself and my approach.” Many of the factors driving the “Caitlin Clark effect” are out of Bueckers’ control. She can’t influence national marketing strategies, media coverage, or the timing of viral moments. What she can control is how she shows up on the court.

And she certainly is doing well on that front. Against the Seattle Storm, the rookie scored 19 points, going 7/14 from the field along with 6 rebounds and 8 assists. Despite the loss, she looked like Paige from college again and even received the stamp of approval from Dallas legend Dirk Nowitzki. And there’s more adding to that reputation. 

Paige Bueckers among most collected trading cards 

The sports collectibles market has seen a steady rise over the past few years, but Caitlin Clark elevated it to an entirely new level in 2024. She didn’t just increase interest in the space; she redefined its potential. Clark delivered the top auction results of the year, generated impressive sales volume, and became a pop culture fixture, appearing on cereal boxes and the cover of Sports Illustrated. 

The pinnacle came in March when Caitlin Clark’s 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Signatures Gold Vinyl 1-of-1 card sold for a record-breaking $366,000 at Goldin Auctions. The sale did more than make headlines; it made history, setting the highest price ever paid for a trading card featuring a female athlete.

And now, the top sellers this year so far have a new entry in Paige Bueckers. The former UConn star has gained her own set of fans and carved her own niche. She is still not as impactful as Clark, but who is? The fact that she is among the top so early in her career shows that the potential is right there. 

Here are the top 5 most collected WNBA player cards handled by the PSA:

Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever): 105,000 cards graded

Angel Reese (Chicago Sky): 7,200

Paige Bueckers (Dallas Wings): 6,400

Cameron Brink (L.A. Sparks): 5,300

Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty): 1,100

 As far as the total sale goes, of the players tracked by Market Movers, only Victor Wembanyama (12.5k) has produced more total sales than Clark (12.2k) among active basketball players over the last 30 days. So the Clark hype is not subsiding; it will take something really special from Bueckers or any other WNBA player to best her in any popularity metric in the coming time. 

The post Over 2 Million Americans Spoil Paige Bueckers’ WNBA Debut With Brutal Caitlin Clark Reality Check appeared first on EssentiallySports.