A star-studded field is fueling record viewership for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Sunday’s Iowa-Louisville NCAA women’s basketball tournament regional final averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.50 million viewers on ESPN, up 82% in ratings and 94% in viewership from Stanford-Texas last year (0.8, 1.29M) and the largest audience on record for a women’s tournament game outside of the Final Four.
The previous high was set one day earlier by Ohio State’s Sweet 16 upset of UConn, which averaged a 1.4 and 2.41 million on ABC — nearly tripling last year’s equivalent window on ESPN2 (Louisville-Tennessee: 0.53, 879K).
Overall, this year’s regional semifinals and finals delivered four of the seven largest women’s tournament audiences outside of the Final Four. Monday’s games — Virginia Tech-Ohio State (1.3, 2.23M) and South Carolina-Maryland (1.2, 2.17M) — rank sixth and seventh respectively.
Most-watched NCAA women’s basketball tournament games prior to the Final Four
The Hokies’ win increased 24% in ratings and 39% in viewership over Louisville-Michigan last year (1.0, 1.61M). The Gamecocks’ win declined a tick in ratings but increased 6% in viewership from last year’s equivalent window — UConn’s double-overtime win over NC State, which at time was the most-watched tournament game prior to the Final Four since 2006 (1.3, 2.04M).
Outside of the two Duke-North Carolina men’s games on ESPN this year — which averaged 2.86 and 2.63 million — the three above-mentioned regional finals rank as the most-watched basketball telecasts on ESPN’s cable networks this season. ESPN’s largest NBA regular season audience this season was 2.15 million for Knicks-Celtics earlier this month.
Other games also performed well. Miami-LSU led off the Elite Eight with a 1.0 and 1.89 million on ESPN Sunday night, up 63% and 77% respectively from South Carolina-Creighton a year ago (0.6, 1.07M).
Returning to the Sweet 16, South Carolina-UCLA averaged a 1.0 (+26%) and 1.75 million (+22%) on ESPN Saturday afternoon, preceded by Maryland-Notre Dame at a 0.7 (+22%) and 1.23 million (+18%). Virginia Tech-Tennessee brought up the rear Saturday with a 0.46 and 782,000 on ESPN2, down slightly year-over-year.
Iowa-Colorado a 0.7 and 1.29 million topped Friday’s action at a 0.7 and 1.29 million, up 36% in ratings and 59% in viewership from the combined audience of South Carolina-North Carolina on ESPN and Texas-Ohio State on ESPN2 in the same window last year (0.5, 809K).
LSU-Utah led in with a 0.66 and 1.10 million, followed by Miami-Villanova at a 0.45 and 762,000. There were no equivalent windows last year, when the Friday games aired in competing primetime doubleheaders.
Louisville-Mississippi brought up the rear Friday with a 0.44 and 733,000, down 8% from the combined ESPN and ESPN2 audience last year.
Overall, the full tournament is averaging 660,000 viewers per game — up 42% from last year. The Sweet 16 averaged 1.2 million (+73%) and the Elite Eight 2.2 million (+43%), both records.
NCAA Women’s Sweet 16 and Elite 8 viewership compared to last year
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 3.28, ShowBuzz Daily 3.28)
