Sunday’s NCAA women’s basketball championship showdown between Iowa and South Carolina captivated audiences nationwide, shattering records and etching its place as the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever recorded by Nielsen. With an astounding average of nearly 19 million viewers, the event not only outpaced Monday’s men’s final between Purdue and UConn by over 4 million viewers but also emerged as the most-viewed basketball game of the past half-decade, surpassing any NBA contest during that period, according to Nielsen data.
The highly anticipated clash, culminating in South Carolina’s victory over Iowa, marked a significant milestone in sports history, as it was the first time the women’s NCAA final garnered a larger audience than its male counterpart. The intensity of the matchup, combined with the presence of Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s standout sensation and the all-time leading scorer in college basketball, undoubtedly fueled the surge in viewer interest.
Despite Iowa’s defeat, Clark’s electrifying performance throughout the tournament resonated widely, underscoring the growing prominence of women’s basketball on the national stage. This landmark achievement capped off a season characterized by a series of record-breaking viewership numbers, each swiftly surpassed by the next.
The Elite Eight rematch between Iowa and LSU, which had previously set the record for the largest college women’s basketball audience recorded by Nielsen with 12.3 million average viewers during the 2023 championship, was eclipsed by Iowa’s Final Four victory over UConn, drawing a remarkable 14.43 million viewers. Both of these milestones were subsequently surpassed by Sunday’s championship game, which garnered an impressive average viewership of 18.89 million.
In 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, as reported by Sports Media Watch. NBA superstar Stephen Curry’s endorsement of Caitlin Clark’s games as “must-see” television proved prophetic, as the final not only surpassed viewership numbers of the 2023 World Series but also came close to matching the 22.3 million viewers in the United States who tuned in to watch the 2022 World Cup Final in English and Spanish, according to Sports Media Watch data.