The women’s national championship game that featured South Carolina against Iowa Sunday broke a TV ratings record for the most-viewed women’s basketball game ever, as reported by ESPN and ABC using Nielsen Fast Nationals data.
Viewership peaked at 24 million and averaged 18.7 million viewers during the game, where South Carolina emerged victorious over Caitlin Clark and Iowa with a score of 87-75 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro described it as “a fitting finale” to the most-watched NCAA women’s basketball tournament ever.
Pitaro stated, “These exceptional athletes, coaches, and teams captured our attention in unprecedented ways, and it’s vital for us to maintain this incredible momentum. I’m immensely proud of our dedicated employees for their exceptional coverage of this historic event.”
The previous record for the most-watched women’s basketball game was set just two days earlier during the Final Four semifinal game between Iowa and Connecticut, averaging 14.2 million viewers, according to ESPN.
The Iowa-UConn game broke a record set in the prior round, with the Iowa-LSU game in the Elite Eight averaging 12.3 million viewers.
The Sunday game between Clark and undefeated South Carolina was the most-watched sporting event since 2019, excluding football and the Olympics, reported by ESPN. It was also the most watched basketball game of any level since 2019.
Moreover, the South Carolina-Iowa game became the second most-watched non-Olympic sporting event ever on U.S. television, following the women’s World Cup Final in 2015, where the United States triumphed over Japan with a score of 5-2.
