Viewers Engage More in Women's College Basketball, Popularity Explodes

This season, the women's college basketball game viewership exploded as record numbers poured in during the 2023 NCAA Tournament that concluded April 1.

College women's basketball has gained a surplus of viewers, fans and supporters the past couple of seasons and most recently for the 2023 NCAA Tournament that produced a record number of viewership.

The First Round of March Madness averaged 257,000 viewers up 27 percent from the 2022 First Round. Four games averaged more than 400,000 viewers according to ESPN. The TV audience that topped the First Round was when 639,000 viewers tuned in to watch Tennessee defeat Saint Louis 95-50 on March 18.

UConn and Vermont drew 636,000 viewers to see the Huskies destroy Vermont 95-52 the same day.

In the second round of the tournament, Iowa beat Georgia 74-66 in front of 1.46 million viewers on ABC, the highest number for a first or second round game on the record. South Carolina's 76-45 win over USF pulled in 1.14 million viewers.

"I love it," Iowa center Monika Czinano said. "This is the game we love and seeing it get the recognition it deserves is obviously super rewarding. It's about time women's basketball gets this kind of viewership, and it can only go up, so I'm super excited. 

"I'm super proud to be part of this team that gets to be part of this journey. My past five years here, I've seen the game grow more than I ever thought it could. I'm just so glad that so many people are tuning in and loving it so much."

Fast forward to the Final Four, and the numbers only got better by 66 percent of what they were last season per ESPN. In Iowa's beat down of one-seed and undefeated South Carolina, an average 5.5 million viewers watched the Hawkeyes advance as the game was ESPN's most viewed semifinal matchup on record.

LSU finished off one-seed Virginia Tech as a 3.4 million-person audience tuned in for the madness. Streaming app ESPN+ recorded the two semifinals matchups as the most-viewed college basketball games on the platform in history including men's games.

Fast Nationals numbers by Nielsen reported the championship game on ABC and ESPN2 where LSU beat Iowa 102-85 was the most-watched NCAA women's basketball game on record with 9.9 million viewers, a 103% jump from last season when South Carolina defeated UConn in front of an average 4.85 million viewers. Sunday's audience peaked at a 12.6 million-person audience.

Related stories on NCAA basketball

• IOWA'S CAITLIN CLARK WINS WOODEN AWARD Iowa guard Caitlin Clark wins the annual John R. Wooden Award in great company as Indiana women's basketball forward Mackenzie Holmes was a top-five finalist among three other standout players. CLICK HERE
• WHICH CONFERENCE IS THE BEST IN THE LEAGUE? The Big Ten tied with the SEC, ACC and Pac-12 each sending seven teams to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Based on March Madness and the regular season rankings, which conference was the best in the country this season? CLICK HERE
• CONTROVERSIAL END TO WOMEN'S NCAA TOURNAMENT Sunday afternoon, the LSU Tigers took home the women's NCAA championship title but not without controversy as poor officiating affected both teams, and trash talk between the foes was the central topic of social media. CLICK HERE