Ratings Roundup: NCAA Women’s College Basketball Sweeps Rankings, Iowa Tops Viewership Charts

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, Iowa Women’s basketball pulls the highest viewership across the board for all games; Caitlin Clark helps pull numbers on both the scoreboard and ratings.

Iowa vs. Michigan Marks Most-Watched Women’s Athletic Event in Network History

For the first time in network history, the Big Ten Network had two women’s athletic events bring in over one million viewers. On Saturday, March 9, the semifinal matchup between Iowa and Michigan delivered 1,075,000 viewers, making it the most-watched women’s athletic event in BTN history. The game between Iowa and Penn State on Friday, March 8, saw 1,040,000 viewers tune in to the quarterfinal matchup.

The two tournament games rank as the second and third most-watched basketball games in BTN history. The all-time record of 1.2 million viewers was set during the 2022 men’s tournament in a game between Michigan State and Wisconsin on March 11, 2022.

The previous record for a women’s athletic event of 657,000 viewers was set earlier this year on Feb. 8, 2024, in a women’s basketball matchup between Iowa and Penn State.

For the third consecutive season, Big Ten regular season women’s basketball and the TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament were the most watched in Big Ten Network history. Viewership of the TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament on BTN was up +141% year-over-year, averaging 361,000 viewers per game.

2023-24 regular season women’s basketball coverage on the Big Ten Network averaged 101,000 viewers per broadcast, a year-over-year increase of +46%.

CBS Sports Delivers the Most-Watched Women’s College Basketball Conference Tournament Game Ever on Any Network

• Big Ten Championship Game averaged more than 3 million viewers (3.021) and peaked with 4.450 million viewers in OT
• Iowa’s OT Victory vs. Nebraska is the most-watched basketball game of the day on any network
• Sunday’s game is the most-watched women’s college basketball game on CBS in 25 years (Tennessee – UConn, 1/10/99, 3.879 million viewers)

To put that figure into a different context, the 3.021 million average viewers of Iowa’s win ranked just barely behind the 3.076 million who watched Saturday’s regular-season finale behind storied rivals Duke and North Carolina in men’s basketball, a game that aired on ESPN in prime time.

ESPN Platforms Wrap Up Successful Women’s College Basketball Regular Season Slate

The 2023-24 women’s college basketball regular season was one for the record books, as viewership saw a 37 percent year-over-year increase across ESPN platforms. Across 81 total games, this season was the most-watched regular season on ESPN platforms since 2008-09. The 2023-24 regular season averaged 476,000 viewers across games on ESPN and ABC.

The 2023-24 regular season was the most consumed on record for ESPN platforms, with viewers watching more than 2.6 billion total minutes of live women’s college basketball games.

In addition, ESPN platforms aired 13 games that surpassed 500,000 viewers during the regular season slate, the most on record in a single season.

Individual Network Growth

Each of ESPN’s platforms saw individual growth during the 2023-24 regular season, including:

• ESPN saw its most-watched women’s basketball regular season since 2017-18, with an increase of 7 percent year-over-year.
• ESPN2 saw the largest growth year-over-year, with a 32 percent increase – making it the most-watched regular season since 2016-17.
• ABC finished up 2 percent year-over-year, while ESPNU registered its most-watched regular season since 2020-21 with a 23% increase year-over-year.
• Most-watched women’s college basketball regular season ever on ESPN+.
• ACC Network and SEC Network each saw their best women’s college basketball regular season on record.

2023-24 Top Regular Season Women’s College Basketball Games Across ESPN Platforms

The undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks (32-0) appeared in each of the top-five games across ESPN platforms during the 2023-24 regular season. The Gamecocks appeared in ESPN’s most-watched game since 2010 on Jan. 25, then followed that up with an appearance in ABC’s best women’s college basketball regular season game ever on Feb. 18.

The women’s college basketball season continues with Champ Week, culminating in Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. ESPN platforms will exclusively cover every second of live action on the Road to Cleveland, with full details to be announced following Selection Sunday.