Caitlin Clark has officially reached No. 2 in U.S. basketball jersey sales, according to newly released Fanatics retail data, putting the Indiana Fever guard ahead of LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Victor Wembanyama. Only Stephen Curry sold more jerseys than Clark, a third-year WNBA guard now outselling James in one of the clearest signs of her pull with fans.
The numbers land as the WNBA faces fresh questions over how it markets its biggest draw. The league’s marketing department recently drew backlash for a hype graphic ahead of a primetime Indiana Fever game that left Clark off the image entirely, even though the Fever were front and center in the matchup. The graphic instead featured Seattle’s Zia Cooke and Indiana rookie backup guard Raven Johnson, a choice that stood out because Clark was not merely absent — she was the player most viewers expected to see.
Fanatics’ retail snapshot gives that debate hard edges. Clark’s jersey sales ranking is not just a neat trivia item; it is a public measure of demand, and it places a third-year WNBA player above some of the biggest names in men’s basketball. That matters because the Fever guard has become one of the league’s biggest commercial engines at the same time her visibility inside league promotions has drawn criticism.
The disconnect has become a talking point well beyond the WNBA’s own channels. Clay Travis seized on the omitted graphic, asking, “Was Michael Jordan ever not the lead graphic on any Bulls game when he was a member of the team?” He added, “You can say this is a small thing, but I would guarantee you Bill Cartwright, Luc Longley & Bill Wennington never got the promo graphic over Jordan.”
That criticism fits a larger pattern around Clark’s rise. Her Indiana Fever have sold 90 times more tickets on StubHub this year than in 2023, a surge that mirrors the rush seen in jersey sales and underscores how quickly she has become central to the league’s business story. The latest Fanatics figures, paired with the promotional controversy, suggest the same thing from two different angles: Clark is driving attention whether the league puts her on the graphic or not.
The next question is not whether she has an audience. The data says she does, in a big way. The question now is whether the league’s marketing choices begin to match that reality, or whether Clark keeps winning the audience while the official promotion keeps looking elsewhere.
