Caitlin Clark set records on the court and in the ratings in her final collegiate regular season game.
Sunday’s Ohio State-Iowa women’s college basketball game averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.39 million viewers on FOX, marking the largest audience for a regular season women’s game on any network since UConn-Tennessee in January 1999 (3.88M). The Hawkeyes’ win, which peaked with 4.42 million from 3 PM ET through the conclusion, obliterated the previous season high of 1.86 million for the first Iowa-Ohio State game this season, which aired on NBC in January.
Regardless of gender, the game ranks second among all college basketball games this season behind only a Michigan State-Arizona game on Thanksgiving that had a direct lead-in from the NFL (5.18M) — topping even the first Duke-North Carolina game this season (3.20M). Including the NBA, it ranks sixth for the season.
Most-watched basketball games, 2023-24 regular seasons
In addition to setting the viewership mark, Iowa’s win was also the most-watched basketball game of the day — no small feat given ABC aired an NBA doubleheader that included the Warriors against the Celtics. The Celtics’ 52-point rout averaged 3.01 million.
For the weekend, Ohio State-Iowa trailed only its lead-out — the NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas (2.4, 4.36M) — as the most-watched sporting event on any network.
Including broadcast network primetime, the game ranked fourth for the day in adults 18-49 (0.51) — trailing only Warriors-Celtics (0.70), NASCAR (0.64) and ABC’s “American Idol” (0.62).
Despite having had one remaining year of eligibility, Clark announced last week that she is leaving college for the WNBA. The last WNBA game — regular season or playoffs — with as large an audience was on the opening weekend of play in 1997. NBC averaged 3.59 million for Charlotte-Phoenix on the second day of play.
