Women's College Basketball Title Decider Shatters Viewership Records

The NCAA women's basketball championship game drew a record-breaking average of 18.7 million viewers, peaking at 24 million as South Carolina won a second title in three years.

The game between South Carolina and Iowa was the most-watched basketball event – college or professional, men's or women's – since the 2019 men's college basketball National Championship match between Virginia and Texas Tech.

It was also the most-watched sporting event (in English), outside of the Olympics and American football, since 2019.

The game's average viewership represents an 89-per-cent increase from the 9.9 million viewers that watched last year's women's championship final and a 285-per-cent increase on 2022.

Last year's figure of 9.9 million was a record until this year's quarterfinal between Iowa and Louisiana State drew 12.3 million.

And the Iowa-Connecticut semifinal drew 14.2 million.

The viewership number for the final is expected to grow following complete reporting from Nielsen.

Tipping off at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, April 7, the game captured the attention of more people than every NBA game since the 2017 NBA Finals, every MLB game since the 2019 World Series, and every previous Stanley Cup Finals match.

The 18.7 million viewing figure even beat ESPN's broadcast of the second of two College Football Playoff semifinals this past January, when Washington and Texas drew 18.4 million viewers.

The most-watched women's sporting event in US history is the Fifa Women's World Cup final in 2015, with 26.6 million viewers.

The championship game aired on over-the-air ABC and pay-TV platform ESPN, along with ESPN2 for an alternative stream featuring women's basketball legends Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird.

The Elite Eight and Final Four (quarterfinals and semifinals), which drew record viewership, only aired on pay TV.

With the star power of Iowa's Caitlin Clark against the powerhouse South Carolina, the broadcast was destined for a big number.

Despite the loss, Clark led all scorers in the championship game with 30 points.

"These exceptional athletes, coaches and teams captured our attention in unprecedented ways and it's incumbent on all of us to keep the incredible momentum going," ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said.

ESPN recently extended its rights deal to broadcast the women's tournament in a bundle for 40 championships worth $920m (€840m) over eight years.

It nearly did not keep the women's basketball tournament part of the package, with IMG, the media advisor and fellow Endeavor-owned company WME Sports weighing up selling women's basketball separately.

IMG says women's basketball is worth 57 percent of the package's value.

"I think ESPN is more than thrilled to have that negotiation done and dusted when they did it because they're going to reap the rewards of this," Justin Beitler, director of global media rights consulting at Octagon, told SportBusiness following the Iowa-South Carolina Elite Eight record-setting viewership.

"The question is, what is this a function of? These two teams and this player or these couple of players, or can you parlay this into something that's a longer-lasting effect?"

Clark now heads to the WNBA, along with several other of the tournament's stars.

The league is already preparing to capitalize on its new stars, with teams such as the two-time defending Las Vegas Aces moving their game against Clark's likely destined Indiana Fever to an arena with around 8,000 more seats.

The WNBA's national rights deal expires in 2025, and it recently extended its deal with Prime Video to then as well.