Team USA Women's Basketball Olympics Viewership Numbers Released

The USA women's basketball team had large viewership for the Olympics gold medal game but that didn't stop debate.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

One thing is clear. A lot of people tuned to watch the US women's national basketball team win gold against France in the Olympics. However, given all the attention Caitlin Clark not being a part of the team has received, their ratings numbers were always going to be discussed. Which was certainly the case after the data was released.

The contest, which had a very early 9:30am ET start time, drew 7.8 million viewers, peaking at 10.9 million for the final half hour of the one point affair. That is a bunch of eyeballs any way you slice it. Though, it only took moments before people wondered what the numbers would have looked like with Clark, and how they compared to previous years.

Richard Deitsch of The Athletic was likely correct when he pointed out two things at once. First that the viewership for women's basketball was strong. And second that it almost certainly would have been higher with the Indiana Fever rookie playing.

This is phenomenal publicity for women’s basketball. Would viewership have been higher if Caitlin Clark was there? All data metrics say yes. Is it still an incredible number for women’s basketball? Absolutely.

I apologize in advance for the nuance here on this site. https://t.co/PVgLpjbH3d

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) August 13, 2024

As far as how the numbers stacked up to previous Olympics, well, the overall viewership was very similar to the games from Tokyo and Rio. However, it was technically the lowest since 2008 in Beijing.

🚨🚨 USA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL VIEWERSHIP 🚨🚨

Last FIVE gold medal game:

🏀 2024 (Paris): 7.8 million viewers (10.9 million peak)
🏀 2021 (Tokyo): 7.9 million viewers
🏀 2016 (Rio): 8.1 million viewers
🏀 2012 (London): 10.2 million viewers
🏀 2008 (Beijing): 5.9 million viewers…

— Vanshay Murdock 🎥🎥 (@VanshayM) August 13, 2024

This led to some notable Clark fan accounts to tout the ratings of some of her college games. The numbers for the national championship between South Carolina and Iowa was notably narrowly eclipsed by the recent men's Olympics basketball final, which drew just over 20 million viewers and was the most watched since 1996.

Caitlin Clark played in 3 COLLEGE basketball games this year with a higher viewership than the OLYMPIC Gold Medal match.

This year had the lowest gold medal viewership since 2008 https://t.co/ozLk6T122J pic.twitter.com/izaqb2dlzT

— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) August 13, 2024

Of course many factors go in to all the data above and despite start time or how it compared to the past, the eighth straight gold medal win by the US women was seen by many.

And it's safe bet the roster in 2028 will garner even more viewers.