If less than half the audience of last year’s all-time record high, Sunday’s lopsided NCAA women’s basketball national championship delivered a sizable audience.
UConn’s blowout win over South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball national championship averaged a 4.3 rating and 8.6 million viewers across ABC and ESPN, trailing only the past two years as the most-watched women’s college basketball game of the Nielsen people meter era (dates back to 1988).
Ratings and viewership fell 54 percent from last year’s record 9.3 and 18.9 million for South Carolina-Iowa and a more modest 17 and 14 percent respectively from LSU-Iowa two years ago (5.2, 9.9M).
Compared to the last time Caitlin Clark and Iowa failed to make the title game, ratings and viewership jumped 59 and 77 percent respectively from the same matchup of South Carolina and UConn in 2022, which aired in primetime exclusively on cable (2.7, 4.85M).
Prior to the past two years, the largest audience for the title game in the people meter era was 7.8 million for Texas Tech-Ohio State on CBS in 1993. (Given the recent inclusion of out-of-home viewing in Nielsen viewership estimates, it is highly likely the 1993 game would have had more viewers all things being equal.)
In the 30 years since ESPN acquired exclusive rights, the largest audience prior to two years ago 5.7 million for UConn-Oklahoma in 2002.
It would seem clear that while women’s college basketball is unlikely to return to Clark-era heights any time soon, it is not returning to the pre-Clark norm either. Even with the majority of last year’s audience tuning out, nearly three times as many viewers watched the Huskies cruise Sunday afternoon than watched the last time they won a national title in 2016 (3.0M).
The previous high for a UConn title game was 7.4 million for their 1995 win over Tennessee, which aired on CBS. (As with the 1993 game, it is highly likely that the 1995 game would have ranked ahead of this year if out-of-home viewing was being tracked then.)
In addition to the residual impact of the Clark era, and the growth of the sport that began before her arrival at Iowa, title game viewership also no doubt benefited from the game airing on ABC. This year marked just the third time that the title game has aired on ABC, with the prior two occurrences being the two Clark years.
