Non-Iowa Women's NCAA Tournament viewership up 74 percent from 2023
Caitlin Clark and Iowa might be the main attraction for many casual women’s basketball fans for this NCAA Tournament, but all boats are rising with the current tides. While the Hawkeyes and Clark set records with first weekend viewership, the first weekend of the tournament was a ratings boon for ESPN, which carries it.
All told, for all but the two games that Iowa played in — ultimately slight outliers in the dataset — viewership for the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament is up 74% from last year, according to ESPN vice president of research Flora Kelly. The network will surely hope to parlay that success into a strong Sweet 16 and Elite 8 viewership.
And beyond the Clark and Iowa show, there’s been plenty of captivating basketball across the country.
South Carolina and head coach Dawn Staley are seeking to finish a perfect season with a national title. LSU and star Angel Reese are seeking a repeat as national champions. UConn looks dangerous as ever with a revitalized and healthy Paige Bueckers. And USC has dazzled all season with star freshman Juju Watkins.
And that’s just a few of the teams and stars with top-level billing heading into the tournament.
Nearly 5 million TVs were tuned in to Iowa’s win over West Virginia
Women’s college basketball continues to be a boon, not just for fans but the broadcasters delivering the games to millions of homes. And millions of homes were indeed tuned in to the hard fought win for No. 1 seed Iowa over No. 8 seed West Virginia on Monday.
The game turned in a 4.9 rating, according to SportsTVRatings. That means nearly five million American households with a television, at least, were watching the 64-54 win for the Hawkeyes in Caitlin Clark’s final game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. And the actual number of viewers was likely higher, with the game on at bars and restaurants and multiple people watching the game in one household.
And as was noted on social media, the game was the most-watched cable programming of the day.
It continues a strong postseason trend for women’s college basketball viewership.
On conference championship Sunday for a trio of women’s basketball tournaments — ACC, SEC and Pac-12 — ESPN aired the SEC, ACC and Pac-12 tournament championship games – and viewership skyrocketed.
The SEC championship led the way with 2 million viewers watching LSU take on South Carolina, which was a 126% increase from last year. That followed the ACC title game between Notre Dame and NC State, which drew 1.4 million viewers for a whopping 462% increase from last year’s installment. The night ended with the Pac-12 Championship, which saw USC defeat Stanford. An average of 679,000 fans tuned in, which was up 42% from the 2023 title game.
Each game was the most-watched on ESPN platforms from its respective leagues, as well.