March Madness branded Powerade bottles before the game between the Maryland Terrapins and the South Carolina Gamecocks in the Elite Eight round of the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament held at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, in South Carolina, March 27, 2023.
Grant Halverson | NCAA Photos | Getty Images
The NCAA women’s championship between Iowa and South Carolina set a record Sunday, drawing 18.7 million viewers on ABC and ESPN.
The game peaked at 24 million viewers, ESPN said, and was the most-watched NCAA women’s college basketball game since 1992. Viewership jumped 89% from the NCAA women’s championship. last year and 285% compared to 2022, according to ESPN.
The championship, which saw Caitlin Clark-led Iowa fall to South Carolina, was the most-watched basketball game, men’s or women’s, college or professional, since 2019.
“With a record audience of 18.7 million viewers, Sunday’s Iowa-South Carolina title game was a fitting finale to the most-watched NCAA women’s basketball tournament of all time,” said Jimmy Pitaro, president of ESPN, in a statement. “These exceptional athletes, coaches and teams have captured our attention in an unprecedented way and it is up to all of us to maintain this incredible momentum.”
The semifinals between Iowa and the University of Connecticut last week also broke viewership records, peaking at 17 million viewers, according to ESPN.
That growth has been fueled in part by players such as Clark, who has drawn comparisons to some of the greatest sports of all time, fueling interest in women’s basketball and attracting new viewers. Clark, 22, dominated the field and set several records, attracting more fans thanks to “the Caitlin Clark effect.”
The March Madness tournament was the latest in a series of highlights for women’s sports in recent months.
Women’s sports have broken records in 2023, with Deloitte estimates predicting that revenue generated by elite women’s sports could exceed $1 billion this year, a 300% increase from just three years ago years.
Between groundbreaking media deals for women’s sports and private investors and celebrities seeking to participate, valuations for women’s sports have reached record levels.
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