NCAA women’s basketball has been on the rise for quite some time. From the emergence of phenoms like Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins to the dominance of teams like South Carolina, women’s basketball has recently been the “IT” sport to tune into. There were rumblings all over social media on whether it would last with superstars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese leaving for the WNBA last year. According to recent numbers released by ESPN, women’s college basketball has exceeded expectations of popularity and longevity on its network.
Numbers Don’t Lie
In a recent report by ESPN, NCAA Women’s Basketball saw its most-watched regular season in 16 years. Viewership has increased three percent year-over-year, which is a 41 percent increase from the 2022-2023 season. A total of 2.6 billion total minutes have been consumed, and 15 games tallied over 500,000 viewers, which is also the most on record. Let’s also add that viewers aged 18-34 are up 27% year-over-year.
The ESPN family of networks’ top games this season included UConn vs. South Carolina at 1.8 million viewers, LSU vs. Texas at 1.7 million viewers, and Texas vs. South Carolina at 1 million viewers.
This is yet another milestone for the women’s game, as it continues to prove that if accessible, it too can make the same amount of noise—or more—than its male counterparts. As Selection Sunday looms, we may be in store for one of the most anticipated NCAAW Tournaments ever for all teams involved. In December, Watkins and USC came to Storrs to face Paige Bueckers and UConn, which created the second-highest-rated NCAAW game ever shown on Fox Sports at a 2.23 million viewer average.
This can only mean the obvious: Everyone Watches Women’s Hoops.
