The year 2024 has undeniably been a unique year for women’s college basketball, with tournament games breaking viewership records not once, not twice, but thrice.
The event that crowned these records was the national championship between Iowa and South Carolina, which hit an unprecedented audience number.
According to the Sports Business Journal, the women’s national championship game between Iowa and South Carolina drew no fewer than 18.7 million viewers on ABC and ESPN.
This figure indicates an impressive increase of 89% over the previous year’s game between LSU and Iowa.
Nothing can generate live audiences like the NFL.
Well, almost nothing. https://t.co/heacLJL7oI— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 9, 2024
Remarkably, this turnout surpasses any viewer metric in the history of women’s college basketball.
It also outpaces every men’s college basketball game viewership since 2019 and even surpasses every NBA Finals game since the battle of the Warriors-Cavaliers in Game 5 of 2017.
The championship game featured the star player Caitlin Clark, who presented her third impressive performance in the 2024 tournament.
Despite Clark’s captivating performance, it was the superior South Carolina team, led by coach Dawn Staley, which ultimately triumphed, finishing their season flawlessly and capturing their third title.
The championship’s whopping 18.7 million viewership stat was also higher than every Kentucky Derby since 1983 and the final round of every Masters tournament since 2001.
