Apr 7, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley celebrates with the trophy after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes in the finals of the Final Four of the womens 2024 NCAA Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

On Wednesday, ESPN outlined the full scale of its record-setting 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament, which featured all-time recorded viewership highs for the second round through the national championship.

Every round of the tournament increased, beginning with the First Four. That round averaged 184,000 viewers, a 24% increase from a year ago. The first round averaged 1.4 million viewers, an 83% increase and its best mark since 2009. Holy Cross vs Iowam led the second round, which had a record 3.2 million viewers.

From the second round on, each round was its most-watched on record.

The second round averaged 1.4 million viewers, a 121% increase from 2023. Iowa’s win over West Virginia averaged a record 4.9 million viewers, with three more games (Syracuse-UConn, Middle Tennessee-LSU, Kansas-USC) surpassing every second-round game other than Iowa-West Virginia.

In the Sweet 16, the round averaged 2.4 million viewers, up 96% from last year. Iowa-Colorado led the way with 6.9 million viewers (another record), and three more Sweet 16 games ranked in the top five most-watched ever in the round.

Moving on to the Elite Eight, the round averaged 6.2 million viewers, a stunning 184% spike from 2023. Iowa-LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers, which was then the most-watched college basketball game ever on ESPN’s platforms. The four Elite Eight games all rank in the top five for the most-watched games ever in the round.

In the Final Four, the two national semifinals averaged 11.0 million viewers, featuring (another) record for Iowa-UConn with 14.4 million viewers.

The cherry on top was the South Carolina-Iowa title game, which averaged 18.9 million viewers and ranks as the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever, the most-watched college basketball game on record airing on an ESPN platform, and the most-watched basketball game (college or pro) since 2017. It’s also the most-watched English language sporting event, excluding football or the Olympics, since 2019.

The tournament averaged 2.2 million viewers per game, a 121% increase from last year and the most-watched tournament since ESPN took control of the rights in 1996. The viewership surge wasn’t just an Iowa thing, either — ESPN’s release notes that viewership for non-Iowa games increased by an impressive 76% from 2023.

By any definition, the 2024 women’s tournament was an incredible success for ESPN and the sport as a whole.

[ESPN]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.