ESPN has most-watched women’s college basketball season in 15 years

Women’s college basketball remains on fire, no matter the network.

Per a Wednesday release, ESPN’s women’s college basketball coverage this season had its most-watched year since 2008-09, averaging 272,000 viewers over all networks, an increase of 37 percent over last year. Notably, ESPN aired just featuring Caitlin Clark, a viewership magnet this year for CBS, Fox, and NBC. Those two games, November 9 vs Virginia Tech and December 6 vs Iowa State, averaged 548,000 and 588,000 viewers, respectively.

The release also notes that games on ABC and ESPN averaged 476,000 viewers.

All of ESPN’s networks saw year-over-year increases during the 2023-24 season. ESPN was up seven percent, ESPN2 was up 32 percent, ABC was up two percent, and ESPNU was up 23 percent. ESPN+, ACC Network, and SEC Network, which are all not rated by Nielsen, had their most-watched seasons ever.

ESPN’s most-watched game of the year was the South Carolina-LSU clash on January 25, which averaged 1.6 million viewers. South Carolina’s game with UConn on Super Bowl Sunday (February 11) ranked second with 1.1 million.

Fox told a similar viewership story for women’s hoops earlier this week. Its game coverage on Fox and FS1 averaged 436,000 viewers, buoyed by 13 games airing on broadcast TV. ESPN aired just five women’s games on ABC, its broadcast network, this season.

[ESPN]