Record-Breaking Viewership Marks 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Success

The NCAA Division One Women’s Basketball Tournament set viewing records across all six rounds, including the NCAA championship game (South Carolina vs. Iowa) which averaged 18.7 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, an 89% increase from last year’s championship game.

With the audience peaking at 24 million viewers, it was the most watched women’s basketball game of all-time and the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s, college or pro) since 2019. The audience was greater than many recent top tier live sporting events including every game of the 2023 World Series and 2023 NBA Finals as well as last year’s men’s NCAA Basketball championship game.

The 2024 final game marked the end of the highest rated women’s March Madness to date, shattering the viewership of any previous tournament.

Behind the viewing records were a number of outstanding players led by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the two-time College Player of the Year, the all-time leading scorer (men’s or women’s) in Division One history and the career leading scorer in NCAA March Madness history (men’s and women’s). Among the other standout players helping to boost viewer interest included LSU’s Angel Reese, UConn’s Paige Bueckers; USC’s JuJu Watkins and the undefeated and tournament champion South Carolina Gamecocks with Kamilla Cardoso, the defensive player of the year.

Building on last year’s tournament ratings, the 2024 women’s tournament generated record viewing across all six rounds on ABC and the ESPN Networks, led by Iowa and Caitlin Clark. The Iowa Hawkeyes have now played in the three most watched NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament games all taking place this month.

Iowa’s opening round victory against Holy Cross averaged viewers on ABC. It was the largest viewing of any non-Final Four women’s tournament game. Previously, the most watched opening round game was in 2022 (UConn vs. Mercer) with an average 767,000 viewers.

Two days later, Iowa’s second round game versus West Virginia generated an average audience of 4.9 million viewers on ESPN. The game was the third most watched women’s tournament game in the past two decades, surpassed only by last year’s Final Four game (Iowa vs. South Carolina) with an average audience of 5.6 million and last year’s championship game (LSU vs. Iowa) with an average 9.9 million viewers.

There were two other second round games that delivered an average audience above two million viewers, UConn vs. Syracuse (2.05 million) and LSU vs. Middle Tennessee (2.01 million). Through the first two rounds, the audience delivery for all 48 games averaged viewers, than in 2023.

The round of Sweet 16 began the following weekend. Led, once again by Iowa, the women’s Sweet 16 had collectively averaged 2.4 million viewers, a year-over-year increase of 96%. Iowa’s victory over Colorado set another audience record averaging 6.9 million viewers on ABC.

At the time, the game ranked second behind last year’s national championship game as the most watched women’s college basketball game since 1995. The LSU-UCLA game averaged 3.8 million viewers, making it the second highest audience for any women’s Sweet 16 game. Through the first three rounds, the women’s tournament is averaging, a year-over-year increase of 104%.

Moving on to the Elite Eight, viewing continued to soar. None of the four games were higher rated than the highly anticipated rematch from last year’s record setting national championship game (Iowa vs. LSU). The hyped-up game did not disappoint. Iowa’s victory over LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers on ESPN.

The rematch easily outpaced last year’s championship game in becoming the most watched women’s college basketball game to date. The previous high had been set in the 1983 national championship game (USC vs. Louisiana Tech) which averaged 11.8 million viewers on CBS.

The Iowa-LSU game was followed by another star-studded matchup (UConn vs. USC.) The nightcap averaged 6.7 million viewers. On the day prior, the South Carolina and Oregon State game averaged 3.1 million viewers, setting an Elite Eight audience record that stood for one day. The second game (NC State vs. Texas) averaged 2.5 million viewers, the lowest rated Elite Eight game this year.

In total, the four Elite Eight games averaged 6.2 million viewers, an increase of 184% from last year. In addition, all four games now rank among the five most watched Elite Eight telecasts.

No surprise, the two Final Four games also set a viewing record. The marquee matchup was Iowa vs. UConn. As with every other game with Iowa and Caitlin Clark, a ratings record was set. Iowa’s victory averaged 14.2 million viewers, the most watched women’s basketball game to date as well as the most watched basketball game ever (including the NBA playoffs) on ESPN.

Heading into the championship game all five tournament games with Iowa and its once in a generation player Caitlin Clark have averaged an astounding 8.3 million viewers on ESPN and ABC. The audience for tournament games that did not involve Iowa grew year-over-year by 74%.

The earlier game featuring top-ranked South Carolina and NC State averaged 7.1 million. This became the third most watched “Final Four” game since at least 1993. Combined, the two games averaged, a year-over-year increase of 138%.