The South Carolina Gamecocks completed their undefeated season and won their third national title with an 87-75 win over Caitlin Calrk and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Many assumed a bunch of people would tune in for the game and they were correct as it was the final college game for Caitlin Clark.
Sunday’s NCAA tournament national title game between undefeated and top overall seed South Carolina and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes averaged 18.7 million viewers, peaking at 24 million, according to preliminary numbers from Nielsen.
To get a sense of how crazy that number is, it not only exceeded the Hawkeyes’ previous two NCAA tournament matchups as the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever, it was the most-watched basketball game in five years and the highest-rating sporting event beyond the NFL or the Olympics since 2019.
Sports Business Journal reported that this is an 89-percent increase over last year’s LSU-Iowa National Championship game that featured Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
The 18.7 million viewers outpaced every men’s college basketball game since 2019, and it’s better than every NBA Finals game since Warriors-Cavaliers Game 5 in 2017. In fact, it outpaced every sporting event outside the NFL, except for November’s college football matchup between Michigan and Ohio State.
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Also Read: Social Media Unleashed Hate On “Cry Baby” Caitlin Clark During Sunday’s National Title Game
Caitlin Clark And Iowa Set Numerous Ratings Records During The NCAA Tournament
This was the third record set in the 2024 tournament in a game featuring Caitlin Clark after the Iowa-South Carolina matchup peaked at over 24 million viewers.
Clark and company delivered big-time for ESPN on Friday with a record audience tuning in to the Final Four as they had an audience of 14.2 million viewers. That game would top the short-lived ratings record for a women’s college basketball game of 12.3 million viewers set with Iowa’s victory over LSU in the Elite 8 game.
Though the records were made primarily due to Clark, it would be South Carolina and head coach Dawn Staley who would come out on top in the game and finish the season undefeated.
