Women's national championship draws 18.7 million viewers to set another ratings record

A record-breaking women’s basketball tournament – and season, for that matter – stayed true to form with Sunday’s national championship.

Iowa vs. South Carolina had the makings for a historic day for the sport. Caitlin Clark looked to cement her legacy by bringing a ring to Iowa City while Dawn Staley’s undefeated Gamecocks were trying to avenge last year’s Final Four loss to the Hawkeyes and do something that hadn’t been done since 2016.

Ultimately, South Carolina came out on top with the 87-75 win. But with 18.7 million people tuning to ABC for the national championship, it was a major victory for women’s basketball as a whole.

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It was the third straight record-setting round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa’s Elite Eight victory over LSU became ESPN’s most-watched basketball game in history and the Hawkeyes’ Final Four win over Paige Bueckers and UConn trailed only the 2014 World Cup as the network’s most-watched non-football event.

It all culminated with Sunday’s title game, and a historic run continued. Sunday’s game was the most-watched basketball sporting event outside of the Olympics and football, ESPN announced, and peaked at 24 million viewers.

“With a record-setting audience of 18.7 million viewers, Sunday’s Iowa-South Carolina title game was a fitting finale to the most-viewed ever NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “These exceptional athletes, coaches and teams captured our attention in unprecedented ways and it’s incumbent on all of us to keep the incredible momentum going. I’m also very proud of our talented and committed employees for how they presented this historic event.”

Women’s basketball’s popularity soared this season, with Final Four ticket prices surging and multiple viewership records broken ahead of the national championship. Clark has been at the forefront of it all as she rewrote the record book, breaking both the NCAA women’s and Division I scoring records as part of her decorated senior season.

Now, she’s off to the WNBA as the likely No. 1 overall pick to the Indiana Fever. But when she looked back on how many more people are tuning in to women’s basketball, Clark said that’s what she’ll take away from her final year at Iowa.

“When I think about women’s basketball going forward, obviously it’s just going to continue to grow, whether it’s at the WNBA level, whether it’s at the college level,” Clark said. “Everybody sees it. Everybody knows, everybody sees the viewership numbers. When you’re given an opportunity women’s sports just kind of thrives, and I think that’s been the coolest part for me on this journey.”

Dawn Staley: ‘We’re a part of’ women’s hoops’ growth

South Carolina also made quite a bit of history this year – and did so in dramatic fashion. The Gamecocks rolled out an entirely new starting lineup from last year’s Final Four team and still went undefeated en route to a second title in three years.

Depth was crucial to their success. In the national championship, South Carolina outscored Iowa 37-0, which was a huge key to the victory. But when it comes to growing the game, Staley said she knows the Gamecocks played a role.

They’ll likely continue to do so, as well.

“I know we do our part in making sure we try to, as much as possible, shout it to the top of our lungs what our game is all about, and all of the story lines and all the talent and all the coaches and all the talent that’s actually telling the stories,” Staley said. “I have to continue to shout out Elle Duncan and Draya Carter and Chiney [Ogwumike] and Aliyah [Boston] and Carolyn Peck. They’ve done a tremendous job. We have to find a way for them to tell our stories during the off-season because you have to continue to build on what we’ve captured.

“Do I think South Carolina is a part of it? Yeah, we’re a part of it. I don’t know what part, but you can see the numbers that, when Caitlin plays in a game, you see the numbers. They’re real numbers, and a lot of people like to deal in those real numbers. I hope we were able to attract some more people by the amount of eyeballs that probably watched our game just because Caitlin was appearing in it.”