South Carolina’s March Madness victory over Iowa breaks audience record again with 18.7 million

South Carolina’s NCAA championship victory over Iowa broke viewership records last weekend, when 18.7 million people tuned in to watch the Gamecocks’ revenge win against Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes, making it the ESPN’s most-watched basketball game (college or pro, men’s or women’s) since 2019.

Sunday’s high-profile showdown in Cleveland, Ohio, certainly set new records inside and outside of women’s college basketball, as it was also the most-watched sporting event outside of the Olympics or football since 2019.

The game peaked at 24 million viewers as the Gamecocks completed an undefeated season with an 87-75 victory over Clark and his teammates.

‘18.7 MILLION’ Clark shared on X along with a fire emoji on Monday despite losing in back-to-back NCAA championship games.

It was Iowa’s third consecutive game to break television viewership records for women’s college basketball.

Caitlin Clark reacted to Monday’s news by tweeting the viewership number with a fire emoji.

South Carolina’s revenge against Clark and company. It was also Iowa’s third consecutive game to break television viewership records for women’s college basketball.

The Hawkeyes’ Elite Eight victory over LSU was a rematch of last year’s title game that drew a record 9.9 million viewers.

The rematch garnered 12.3 million viewers.

Then came the Final Four meeting with the blue bloods UCoon on Friday night. That game raised the record to 14.2 million.

Iowa’s Elite Eight victory against LSU, a rematch of last year’s championship game, drew a record 9.9 million viewers, previously in the NCAA tournament.

South Carolina-Iowa’s audience also led every World Series game since Game 7 of the 2019 World Series; every NBA Finals game since Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals; every Dayton 500 since 2006 and every Masters final round audience since 2001.

This year’s NCAA title game also had more people watching than all but four college football games in 2023.

Clark is now moving to the WNBA (the league’s draft is April 15) and her departure will raise many questions about whether these new NCAA Tournament viewership records will hold up for next year’s March Madness. .

That depends in part on potential increased investment from ESPN and Fox Sports and whether both networks will continue doing what they did this year and in 2023 by programming women’s basketball on Big Fox.