Like millions of people, we’ve been following basketball wiz Caitlin Clark’s story closely. From her astounding turn with the Iowa Hawkeyes during the 2024 NCAA tournament to the NBA draft to her first WNBA game in May, it’s been exciting to see Clark’s rise generate more interest in women’s sports. We can see it in the coverage, trends, and conversations on Flipboard over the past few months. 

In March 2024, Clark drew a lot of eyeballs to the Iowa women’s matches during March Madness. Everyone was eager to see what she’d achieve in her last major college appearance. Fans on Flipboard followed those games and started following other teams too. Throughout the tournament, we observed a 499% WoW increase in weekly time spent reading about the Women’s Basketball Championship. 

On the day of the highly anticipated LSU versus Iowa matchup, Flipboarders were following the game in real-time: we saw one of the largest single day spikes in engagement traffic (+2,122% increase) and time spent (+1,632%) in Women’s March Madness content. And even as Clark’s  professional career is just beginning, fans are continuing to follow her journey (+226% increase in engagement in May). 

Every month, we monitor Flipboard Content Topics that have the highest increase, and, in April, the top four leading the charts were likely driven by the “Caitlin Clark effect.” The month’s hottest topics included women’s basketball, women’s sports, draft, and women’s college basketball, driving an average 120% increase in engagement month over month. 

Women’s sports are continuing to be of interest on Flipboard, with a new heightened level of engagement (77% increase YoY in time spent). We feel like this is just the beginning: women’s sports and personalities are attracting new fans and energizing existing audiences as more people tune in to see the teams, follow the rivalries, and cheer on the athletes. For example, Angel Reese stories saw a 265% increase in engagement in May. We’re proud to support the daily news around and deep dives into women’s sports. Our Sports Desk curates premium content for all sports events, keeping people informed and inspired. Tune into our coverage on the WNBA Season, 2024 Summer Games, Tennis, and Women’s Sports.

— Claudia Chau, Client Solutions Team Lead, is curating Cantonese Recipes