Topline
The University of South Carolina’s Sunday victory over Iowa for its second NCAA women’s basketball championship win in three years set a new viewership record for women’s college basketball, bringing in an average of 18.7 million viewers—just days after Iowa broke the previous viewership record in its game against UConn.
Key Facts
The game peaked at 24 million viewers and became the most-watched basketball game of any kind since 2019—including men’s and women’s games at the pro and college level—ESPN tweeted Monday afternoon.
It was also the most-watched spring sporting event since 2019, with the exception of football and the Olympics.
Sunday’s championship is now the second most-watched non-Olympic women’s sporting event of all time, falling only to the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final, which had 25.4 million viewers.
The championship, which saw South Carolina beat Iowa—and its star senior guard Caitlin Clark—87-75 was a “fitting finale to the most-viewed ever NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a release.
Big Number
3. That’s how many times Iowa broke the viewership record for women’s college basketball in the last week. It first broke the record—which the team had previously set—in its rematch against LSU on April 1 that drew 12.3 million viewers, and broke it again on April 5 in its Final Four game against UConn (with 14.2 million viewers) before breaking it a final time in Sunday’s championship game.
Surprising Fact
Sunday’s championship saw an 89% increase in viewership compared to last year’s match between Iowa and LSU, and a 285% increase compared to the 2022 championship featuring South Carolina and UConn.
What To Watch For
Whether the support for women’s basketball transfers to the WNBA. Clark, South Carolina star Kamilla Cardoso and LSU star Angel Reese have all declared for the April 15 draft, and many are curious if the followings they grew in college will follow them to their professional careers in a league that typically faces lower viewership than the NBA.
