A record-breaking 19.8 million viewers tuned in live to this year’s March Madness women’s basketball (MMWBB) championship game and watched on the edge of their seats as phenom Caitlin Clark took on undefeated powerhouse South Carolina Gamecocks in a fight for the top of the basketball world.
Leading up to the championship game, the tournament was already making headlines as one of the most anticipated contests in years. Household names like UConn, LSU, Stanford, Iowa, and South Carolina seemed evenly matched, which only cultivated the interest around who would emerge as the victor. As March 22 rolled around, the teams took the stage, and the hype surrounding the tournament delivered, with over 1.9 million viewers tuning in for the first and second rounds, which is the best on record. Although the Cinderella runs that usually grasp the attention of fans during March Madness did not take place, fans were instead interested in seeing the young stars that dotted the top teams like UConn’s Paige Buckers, USC’s Juju Watkins, LSU’s Angel Reese, and especially Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Following a Sweet 16 that barred upsets, most of the top teams made it to the elite eight, where the tournament heated up as USC took on UConn and Iowa faced LSU in a 2023 championship rematch. In their rematch, Caitlin Clark took over as she dropped 41 points and punched her team’s ticket to the final four, where they would take on UConn, who narrowly defeated USC to advance. In the final four, featuring North Carolina State versus South Carolina and Iowa against UConn, 13.8 million viewers turned on their TVs to watch in anticipation. Iowa barely edged out UConn in a thriller that saw them come away with a two-point victory while South Carolina continued their year-long dominance as they advanced to the championship game with an undefeated record.
Through these six games, the tournament demolished viewership numbers as the elite eight garnered 6.2 million viewers, and the final four caught the eyes of 13.8 million people. To put these numbers in perspective, the MMWBB championship game had previously never broken over 6 million viewers nor much less scratched the surface of the men’s tournament viewership numbers, yet the final four secured just under a million fewer viewers than last year’s men’s championship did at 14.8 million. However, these numbers are without even mentioning this year’s MMWBB championship.
In Cleveland, Ohio, the two faces of women’s collegiate basketball took the stage, and Caitlin Clark took on the daunting task of defeating the undefeated. The game began close, with Iowa and South Carolina neck and neck, as Clark led her team with 18 points in the first quarter. However, as the Gamecocks adjusted their defensive strategy to cool down Clark, their size and bench took over as they dominated in offensive and defensive rebounds, points in the paint, and bench points. Headed into the fourth quarter, the Gamecocks controlled the game, leading by nine and growing their lead in the face of a weak Iowa defense; however, Iowa finally went on an 8-0 run and cut the lead to within striking distance midway through the fourth quarter. Yet, as Clark came down with the chance to bring it within one possession, South Carolina guard Raven Johnson stripped Clark of the ball and regained momentum for the Gamecocks, who secured a three-possession lead that they never relinquished.
As South Carolina’s perfect season came to a close, over 19.8 million people watched from everywhere around the world. This championship game marked by far the most viewed MMWBB game ever and garnered more attention than the last four March Madness men’s basketball championship games.
With the 2023-2024 collegiate season now over, if this year’s tournament is any indication of what is to come, the future of not only collegiate women’s basketball but also women’s basketball as a whole is bright.
