LSU’s NCAA Championship win over Iowa on Sunday afternoon easily marked the most-watched women’s college hoops game on record, notes SBJ’s Austin Karp. It was the first NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship to air on broadcast TV.
ABC, combined with “The Bird & Taurasi Show” alternate telecast on ESPN2, combined for 9.9 million viewers in the 3:30pm ET window on Sunday, obliterating the previous records set around 20 years ago. The reigning top game since ESPN became a rightsholder (for the 1996 tourney) had been 5.68 million for the 2002 national championship featuring UConn and Oklahoma.
LSU-Iowa is up 104% from 4.85 million for South Carolina-UConn in last year’s title game, which aired on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU on a Sunday night. The game on Sunday afternoon peaked at 12.6 million viewers.
LSU-Iowa also marks the most-streamed college event yet for ESPN+ (men’s or women’s).
| NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Game audience trend | ||||
| YEAR | NETWORK(S) | NIGHT | MATCHUP | VIEWERS (000) |
| 2023 | ABC/ESPN2 | Sun. | LSU-Iowa | 9,900 |
| 2022 | ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU | Sun. | South Carolina-UConn | 4,854 |
| 2021 | ESPN | Sun. | Stanford-Arizona | 4,077 |
| 2020 | ESPN | No game (COVID-19) | ||
| 2019 | ESPN | Sun. | Baylor-Notre Dame | 3,689 |
| 2018 | ESPN | Sun. | Notre Dame-Mississippi State | 3,536 |
| 2017 | ESPN | Sun. | South Carolina-Mississippi State | 3,827 |
| 2016 | ESPN | Tues. | UConn-Syracuse | 2,972 |
| 2015 | ESPN | Tues. | UConn-Notre Dame | 3,081 |
| 2014 | ESPN | Tues. | UConn-Notre Dame | 4,270 |
