Sports Ratings Tracker

The NCAA women’s basketball tournament was averaging 628,000 viewers through the first two rounds, up 4% from last year (602K) and behind the Caitlin Clark-fueled levels of 2024 as the highest average since 2009. Note that the 4% increase is well within the margin that can be explained entirely by Nielsen’s shift to “Big Data + Panel” methodology.

Second round games last Sunday and Monday averaged 1.0 million (+3%).

Friday’s NCAA women’s basketball national semifinals averaged 3.9 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 65 percent from last year’s all-time record of 11.0 million, down 13 percent from 2023 (4.5M), but still the third-highest average in the three decades ESPN has carried the event.

UConn-UCLA averaged 4.1 million and South Carolina-Texas 3.6 million, ranking as the fifth and ninth-most watched national semifinals ever on ESPN, but both down considerably from last year’s pairing of Iowa-UConn (14.4M) and South Carolina-NC State (7.2M).

For more details on the numbers, see this article.

The NCAA women’s Elite Eight averaged 2.9 million viewers on the ESPN networks, down more than 50 percent from last year’s record of 6.2 million, but still the second-highest average on record for the round. On Sunday, ABC averaged 3.4 million for UCLA-LSU and 3.1 million for South Carolina-Duke, both up from last year’s equivalent windows. The Monday games plunged, with ESPN drawing 3.0 million for UConn-USC (-55%) and 2.3 million for Texas-TCU (-81%).

The Sweet 16 averaged 1.7 million, down 30% from last year but also the second-highest average for the round. ABC’s Texas-Tennessee and TCU-Notre Dame games led the way with 2.9 and 2.5 million respectively, down sharply from games last year that included Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.

See this article for additional details on the weekend numbers.

Auburn-Michigan delivered the largest audience of the NCAA regional semifinals with 7.34 million viewers on CBS Friday night, up slightly from Duke-Houston last year (7.33M). Michigan State-Mississippi averaged 6.71 million earlier in the night (+4%), with the concurrent Tennessee-Kentucky game at 3.56 million across TBS and truTV (-7%). (PI 3/31)

In women’s action, ESPN averaged 1.41 million for LSU-NC State (+22%). (PI 3/31)

See this article for additional details on the Friday numbers.

The first two rounds of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament averaged 602,000 viewers per game across the ESPN family of networks, down 26% from last year, but the second-highest average since 2009. The second round averaged 982,000, trailing only last year (1.4M) as the highest on record, and the first round averaged 367,000 — trailing only last year’s record (469K) as the most-watched opening round since 2013.

For a full breakdown of the women’s tournament numbers, see this article.

Friday’s Kentucky-Troy NCAA men’s basketball tournament opening round game averaged 3.86 million viewers on CBS, followed by Illinois-Xavier at 3.22 million. On cable, TNT drew 2.76 million for UConn-Oklahoma and 2.06 million for Florida-Norfolk State, while TBS drew 2.57 million for New Mexico-Marquette and truTV 881,000 for Arizona-Akron.

Shifting to women’s action, Tennessee-South Florida drew 684,000 on ESPN, preceded by Louisville-Nebraska at 499,000. (PI 3/24)