How women’s NCAA basketball and Caitlin Clark broke viewership records, in three charts

Sunday’s NCAA women’s basketball championship between Iowa and South Carolina drew nearly 19 million average viewers, shattering records to become the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever measured by Nielsen.

The game not only eclipsed Monday’s men’s final between Purdue and UConn by more than 4 million viewers, but it also the most-viewed basketball game of the past five years, outpacing any NBA contest during that period, according to Nielsen.

The historic matchup, which ended with South Carolina winning against Iowa, marked the first time the women’s NCAA final drew more spectators than the men’s championship. The game’s high stakes and the presence of Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s standout star who is the all-time leading scorer in college basketball, likely fueled the surge in viewer interest.

Despite Iowa’s loss, Clark’s compelling performance throughout the tournament apparently resonated widely, highlighting the growing prominence of women’s basketball on the national stage.

The milestone capped a season marked by viewership records that were made, and then broken, in quick succession.

The Elite Eight rematch of Iowa and LSU — who faced off in a 2023 championship that averaged nearly 10 million viewers — first broke the record for the largest college women’s basketball audience recorded by Nielsen, with 12.3 million average viewers. Four days later, Iowa’s Final Four victory over UConn surpassed that milestone with 14.43 million viewers.

Both those records were broken again by Sunday’s 18.89 million average viewers.

By comparison, last year’s NBA Finals averaged 11.64 million viewers over the entire series, with the final game reaching 13.08 million average viewers, according to data from Sports Media Watch.

NBA superstar Stephen Curry’s assertion last month that Clark’s games were “must-see” television certainly held true. Not only did the final surpass viewership numbers of the 2023 World Series, but it also came close to the 22.3 million viewers in the United States who watched the 2022 World Cup Final on television in English and Spanish, according to Sports Media Watch.