NCAA Men's, Women's Tournaments experiencing uptick in viewership

On3 image — Photo by Ben Solomon | NCAA Photos via Getty Images

As the world slowly returns to what we can consider normal, so has everything that went away with the pandemic.

Both the Men’s and Women’s 2022 NCAA Tournaments have experienced a significant uptick in viewership through the opening two rounds compared to 2021. In fact, this season has seen the Men’s Tournament draw more viewers through the first two rounds since 2017, according to Austin Karp of the Sports Business Journal. In total, the Men’s Tournament has gained 12 percent in viewership compared to last year, while the Women’s Tournament has jumped up 15 percent.

On a per-game basis, NCAA Tourney matchups are averaging 3.06 million viewers across TNT, CBS, TBS and truTV through 2nd round. Best figure for tourney since 3.07 million in 2017 (which had big 2nd round with Kansas-Michigan State and Kentucky-Wichita State) https://t.co/Lw4ulvxEFe
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) March 22, 2022

The women’s side saw UConn vs. Central Florida haul in roughly 1.13 million viewers, the most for an opening-round game since 2009. Additionally, Creighton’s upset of Iowa in the Round of 32 attracted 993,000 viewers. By itself, the second round saw a 25 percent overall increase in viewers from a season ago. The Men’s Tournament drew in an average of 3.06 million viewers, hitting over 5 million on average in the Round of 32.

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Unfortunately, Kentucky’s loss to 15-seeded Saint Peter’s was the most-watched game in the opening round, registering nearly 5 million viewers. Saint Peter’s vs. Murray State in the Round of 32 would bring in nearly 6.7 million viewers, or the sixth-most of any tournament game so far. In his report, Karp notes that the March Madness Live streaming app is not included in viewership numbers (as someone who’s watched the majority of the games through that service, I can only imagine this makes the actual number much higher).

With Kentucky out of both tournaments, are you someone that continues to watch anyways? Or is the pain too much to handle? We understand either way…