Despite pitting teams from the lowest-profile Power 5 conference, the finale of the Women’s NCAA Tournament delivered in the ratings for ESPN.
Sunday’s Stanford-Arizona Women’s NCAA Tournament National Championship averaged a 2.0 rating and 4.08 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience for the game since 2014 (UConn-Notre Dame: 4.27M). The fast-national audience reported Monday (3.6M) did not include out-of-home viewing, which Nielsen began incorporating into its final nationals last August.
Stanford’s narrow win ranks as the third-most watched women’s national championship since 2004 (UConn-Tennessee: 5.58M), behind only the 2014 game and Baylor-Notre Dame in 2012 (4.24M). Compared to the previous title game in 2019 (Baylor-Notre Dame), ratings fell a tick (from 2.1) but viewership increased 11% (from 3.69M). [Related: Women’s Final Four ratings history.]
Given the presence of two Pac-12 teams and the Easter Sunday holiday, far lower numbers could have been expected.
Notably, the game delivered Sunday’s highest rating in adults 18-49 (0.92) and 18-34 (0.66), topping ABC’s second-place “American Idol” in both demos (0.85 and 0.48 respectively). It ranked second for the day in 25-54 (1.12), trailing “Idol” (1.21).
The game also dominated its lead-out, White Sox-Angels on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. That game had less than half of the audience (1.61M) and significantly lower ratings in the key young adult demographics (including men 18-49, where Stanford-Arizona won by 55%).
As for Friday’s national semifinals, Arizona’s upset of UConn averaged a 1.5 and 2.69 million on ESPN — marking the most-watched semifinal since Mississippi State’s upset of UConn in 2017 (2.76M). Ratings increased a tick and viewership 26% from Notre Dame’s upset of UConn in 2019 (1.4, 2.14M).
In the early window, Stanford’s narrow win over South Carolina drew a 1.0 and 1.68 million — up a tick and 13% respectively from Baylor-Oregon in ’19 (0.9, 1.49M). Keep in mind that this was the first year both national semifinals aired on ESPN, rather than ESPN2, since 2015.
The complete, three-game Women’s Final Four averaged 2.85 million viewers, up 14% from 2019 and the highest average since 2012.
