It might be fair to argue that college basketball has never been hotter with both men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament action seeing big ratings numbers.
On the men’s side, CBS and TNT Sports’ coverage of the 2026 NCAA Tournament has set high viewership marks one round after another. Through the first weekend, the tournament is reaching all-time high audience numbers with both first and second round games setting new records. Thus far, the men’s NCAA Tournament is the most-watched in history with an average of 10.1 million viewers through the second round.
The same is true on the women’s side. Although ESPN hasn’t quite reached a record audience during first and second round coverage, the network came close. According to an ESPN announcement, the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on the women’s side has been the second most-watched on record. Games averaged 1.0 million viewers on Monday and Tuesday while the total watch time has made it the second most-consumed tournament to date as well.
The @MarchMadnessWBB 2nd Round was the 2nd most-watched on record, averaging 1.0M viewers 📈
🏀 Overall, the #NCAAWBB tournament has amassed 3.3B total minutes – making it the 2nd most-consumed early rounds on record pic.twitter.com/Dtvr7Ki2oj
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) March 25, 2026
The women’s game has been blessed with incredible starpower in recent years. This year Connecticut’s Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd are the main attraction as the Huskies look to reassert their dominance over the sport. It will be fascinating to see where the Final Four and National Championship Game rankings land without the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers leading the charge.
But we saw last year’s WNBA ratings fare very well even with Clark sidelined due to injury. And the strong numbers for this year’s NCAA Tournament shows that the growth in the women’s game is much stronger and much deeper than just one or two star players.
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