The sports world has witnessed groundbreaking records set by women throughout history, and Caitlin Clark’s performance in her final regular season game served as a reminder of these feats.
Caitlin Clark scored her record-breaking 3,668th point in this game. With this feat, she surpassed Pete Maravich’s record, owning the title for the most points scored in Division I history.
On Sunday, the Ohio State-Iowa women’s college basketball game set an unprecedented mark with a 1.9 rating, gathering a record-breaking 3.39 million viewers on FOX.
Sunday’s Ohio State-Iowa game averaged 3.4 million viewers on FOX.
It was the 2nd-most watched CBB game of the season—men's or women's—and it outdrew Warriors-Celtics on ABC.
(h/t @paulsen_smw) pic.twitter.com/PBUSFnawxA
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 5, 2024
Making it the most significant audience recorded for a regular season women’s game on any network since UConn-Tennessee drew (3.88 million ) in 1999.
The Hawkeyes’ landmark victory, drawing a peak of 4.42 million from 3 PM ET till the end, broke the previous season high of 1.86 million for the first Iowa-Ohio State game earlier this season, which took place on NBC in January.
Interestingly, gender played no part in its popularity. The game now ranks second among all college basketball games this season.
Only falling behind a Michigan State-Arizona game on Thanksgiving that was directly overseen by the NFL, overshadowing even the first Duke-North Carolina game this season.
The Ohio State-Iowa win marked a peak in viewership records, standing as the most-watched basketball game of the day.
No mean feat considering ABC aired an NBA doubleheader, including the intensely-followed Warriors against Celtics game, which averaged 3.01 million.
Over the weekend, just trailing behind NASCAR Cup Series in Las Vegas in viewing statistics, the Ohio State-Iowa basketball game successfully took over the lead from other sporting events.
Adult viewers aged 18-49 had the game ranked fourth for the day, only following behind Warriors-Celtics, NASCAR, and ABC’s American Idol.
Despite having one year of eligibility left in her college career, Clark announced she would be leaving college for the WNBA.
This grand finale bears an uncanny resemblance to events from the past.
The last time a WNBA game, whether regular season or playoffs, drew an audience as substantial, was during the opening weekend of play in 1997, with NBC securing an average of 3.59 million for the Charlotte-Phoenix game.
