Women’s tournament posts second most-watched Sweet 16 on record

The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is continuing its fast start.

According to ESPN PR, the women’s March Madness tournament has posted its second-most-watched Sweet 16 on record, behind only last year’s Caitlin Clark-fueled ratings bonanza. The regional semifinal round averaged 1.7 million viewers across ESPN’s family of networks.

ABC’s Saturday afternoon doubleheader headlined the round. No. 1 seed Texas’s win over No. 5 seed Tennessee led the day, averaging 2.9 million viewers across ABC, ESPN+, and Disney+. Per ESPN PR, the game was the third-most-watched Sweet 16 game on record and peaked at 3.6 million viewers.

The lead-in to that game also cracked the 2 million viewer threshold. TCU’s win over Notre Dame at 1 p.m. ET on ABC averaged 2.5 million viewers across the same platforms, good for the fourth-most-watched Sweet 16 game on record.

Moving over to ESPN, Saturday evening’s game between Oklahoma and UConn averaged 1.9 million viewers, making it one of the 10 most-watched Sweet 16 games on record. Rounding out the top games of the Sweet 16, South Carolina’s win over Maryland on Friday evening averaged 1.7 million viewers on ESPN, making it also a top-10 Sweet 16 game on record.

Overall, this year’s Sweet 16 audience was down 29% compared to last year’s record-setting 2.4 million viewers. Compared to 2023, when Clark was less of a viewership factor, the Sweet 16 round is up 39%.

As expected, this year’s tournament is racking up many second-bests due to last year’s enormous success. But given the consistent double-digit improvements over 2023, it’s clear that women’s college basketball has raised its baseline viewership.

That’s also evidenced by ESPN’s year-over-year ratings improvements during the regular season.

So while second-best is usually a pretty good superlative to earn in television ratings anyway, that title looks even better considering the context of last year’s tournament.