Women’s NCAA basketball title game draws more viewers than men’s final

The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men’s title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching the undefeated University of South Carolina beat the University of Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark, according to ratings released Tuesday.

The Sunday afternoon game on ABC and ESPN outdrew Monday’s men’s final between the University of Connecticut and Purdue University by more than four million viewers. The Huskies’ 75-60 victory averaged 14.82 million on TBS and TNT.

The audience for the women’s game—in which the Gamecocks won their fourth national title and denied the Hawkeyes their first—peaked at 24.1 million during the final 15 minutes.

“You’re seeing the growth in many places: attendance records, viewership and social media engagement surrounding March Madness,” UCLA women’s coach Cori Close said. “I don’t think you can attribute it just to Iowa, though. A rising tide does lifts all boats. But I think all those boats have been on many different waterways. The product is really good, and the increase of exposure is getting rewarded.”

It was the second most-watched non-Olympic women’s sporting event on U.S. television, trailing only the 2015 Women’s World Cup final between the United States and Japan, which averaged 25.4 million on Fox. That also was on a Sunday and took place in prime time on the East Coast.

The record for the most-watched women’s basketball game still belongs to the gold medal game of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics between the United States and Brazil, which averaged 19.5 million. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley played for the victorious U.S. team.

Nielsen’s numbers include an estimate of the number of people who watched outside their homes, which wasn’t measured before 2020. Due to cord-cutting, the in-home audience has steadily declined annually.

Monday night’s audience for the men’s game was a 4% increase over last year’s final between the Huskies and San Diego State on CBS. The number likely dropped off during the second half when UConn took control to become the first repeat champion since Florida in 2007.

The two men’s semifinal games averaged 12.8 million. UConn-Alabama attracted 14.18 million and the game between Purdue and North Carolina State averaged 11.45 million. Friday night’s women’s semifinal games averaged 10.8 million, with the Iowa-UConn game averaging 14.2 million.

The 67 games of the men’s tournament across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV averaged 9.9 million viewers, a 3% increase over last year.

The audience for the women’s national title game was up 90% over last year when Clark and Iowa fell to Louisiana State University. That also was the first time since 1995 that the championship was on network television.

The audience was 289% bigger than the viewership for the Gamecocks’ title two years ago, when they beat UConn on ESPN.

“I had not seen it much (women’s basketball) before this year. I didn’t make it appointment television. This year, it was appointment television,” said former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, who now runs a sports television consulting company. “That’s what happened when you see those numbers. There were a lot of people making notes to sit down and watch the games.”

During the Final Four, Clark said the audience growth was benefiting all of women’s sports, not just basketball.

“I think you see it across the board, whether it’s softball, whether it’s gymnastics, volleyball. People want to watch. It’s just when they’re given the opportunity, the research and the facts show that people love it,” she said.

Clark and Iowa have the three biggest audiences for women’s college basketball. The Hawkeyes’ victory over UConn on Friday night averaged 14.2 million, and their April 1 victory over LSU in the Elite Eight drew 12.3 million.

Iowa’s six NCAA Tournament games on ESPN and ABC averaged 10.07 million.

However, as Clark heads to the WNBA, where she is expected to be chosen first by the Indiana Fever in Monday’s draft, many wonder if the college game can continue to attract large audiences.

Clark was the marquee player of March Madness, but there was an impressive group of freshmen, headlined by Southern California’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Texas’ Madison Booker. Watkins set the NCAA record for points by a freshman with 920.

“There are also some great freshmen coming into the game next year who I think are going to make a tremendous impact. As long as we keep telling the story, there’s still room to grow the game,” Close said.

It also helped that the women’s game got increased exposure during the regular season on network television.

Fox carried 14 women’s games this season, including three in prime time, NBC two, and CBS had the Big Ten Conference Tournament championship. ABC had five regular-season games and nine during the NCAA Tournament.

Fox has announced the Women’s Champions Classic for next season on Dec. 7. The prime-time doubleheader will feature UConn, Iowa, Louisville and Tennessee.

Pilson thinks this year’s tournament has paved the way for further growth. Just maybe not at the level seen with Clark’s following.

“I wouldn’t call it a blip because I think the women’s game is going to definitely improve from ratings and exposure here on out,” he said. “The broadcast and top cable sports channels can still deliver an audience. Midseason coverage tends to focus on the teams and personalities to make the public aware of the athletes. But the game has improved over the last five years. It has become faster and more competitive. I also think they have learned from the NBA and NFL on how to promote its stars.”

Most audiences during March Madness also tuned in before and after Iowa’s games.

UConn’s 80-73 win over Southern California in the Elite Eight on April 1, which tipped off after the Iowa game, averaged 6.7 million. During the Sweet 16 on March 30, LSU’s victory over UCLA, which preceded the Iowa game, averaged 3.8 million.

“The great thing about what’s happened the last two years is there are people who only watch out for Caitlin Clark, but there are also people who watch for Caitlin Clark and became interested in the other games,” said Jon Lewis, who runs the Sports Media Watch site. “It’s not like the Caitlin Clark games did amazingly well and every other game was at the same level that it was two years ago. They were also tuning in on days when Caitlin Clark didn’t play, which is really notable. Now, none of those numbers are at the level of what we saw for the Iowa games, but they are a lot better than what the tournament was getting before.”

The championship game’s return to network television has also benefited the women’s game. UConn’s victory over Tennessee in 1995 averaged 7.44 million on CBS. Despite ESPN’s work raising the profile of the tournament since it acquired the rights in 1996, the closest the network got to that number for the final was in 2002, when 5.68 million watched UConn beat Oklahoma.

“I think our game has been good for a long time and I think people have just missed the boat,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said during the Final Four. “Now we’ve finally had the exposure, and people have understood, ‘Wow, I haven’t watched women’s basketball for a long time, I’ve missed something.’ I don’t think they’re going to want to miss anymore. Caitlin has certainly been a tremendous star for our game, but there are so many stars in our game. So we’re just going to latch onto that next one next year.”

With record ratings for the NCAA championship game and nearly every other game she played this season, Clark is joining the WNBA at the right time. The league has its TV deal expiring at the end of next year and that could lead to a massive new contract for the WNBA.

The WNBA just had its most-watched season in 21 years, averaging 462,000 viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and CBS. The league also had its most-watched Finals in 20 years that featured Las Vegas and New York. It was up 36% from the previous season. The league’s attendance rose 16%—it’s highest figure since 2018. Throw Clark into the mix and that number could grow exponentially.

“When you’re given an opportunity, women’s sports just kind of thrives,” Clark said. “I think that’s been the coolest thing for me on this journey. We started our season playing in front of 55,000 people in Kinnick Stadium, and now we’re ending it playing in front of probably 15 million people or more on TV. It just continues to get better and better and better. That’s never going to stop.”

Clark has inspired countless young boys and girls to want to watch and attend college basketball games. The WNBA hopes that carries on to her career in Indiana, where she is the expected No. 1 pick in the draft Monday night. There’s no reason to think it won’t as fans traveled across the country to see her play in college as nearly every road game Iowa played was sold out the past two seasons. Two WNBA teams have already moved their games against Indiana to bigger arenas.

“I know her shoulders are heavy because of what she has to give to women’s basketball. I just want to say we’re thankful. We’re thankful that she chose to play basketball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “We’re thankful for the way she’s handled all of it. Her next step is the WNBA — I do think she can be that person that elevates us.”

She certainly will be an attendance boost for the Fever, who were second-to-last in home attendance averaging just over 4,000 fans. The Fever play in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which could hold 20,000 spectators. The team has not released how many tickets they’ve sold since they won the draft lottery to get the No. 1 pick.

If Monday night’s draft is any indication of excitement, the league sold out of its approximately 1,000 tickets within 15 minutes. The cheapest available ticket on one secondary market topped $165 this week.