Tournament records historic viewership
Despite an unprecedented season, the lack of equal resources from the NCAA and having its championship game on Easter Sunday, the NCAA women’s basketball tournament reached record peaks in viewership in 2021.
According to ESPN, Sunday’s national championship of No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 3 Arizona averaged 4.1 million viewers and peaked at 5.9 million, making it the most-watched national championship since 2014. The game, which came down to the last possession in a thrilling 54-53 Cardinal victory, saw an increase viewership of nine percent from the 2019 title game of Notre Dame and Baylor, which averaged 3.7 million viewers.
Even though UConn fell to Arizona in Friday’s second semifinal, the Hartford/New Haven area was the top market of viewership for the championship game with a 6.9 rating. The markets of Phoenix and San Francisco came in at No. 4 and No. 5 following Knoxville (No. 2) and Portland (No. 3).
Viewership numbers increased across the whole tournament this year in part due to ESPN broadcasting every game nationally for the first time.
According to Sports Media Watch, the first-round game of Tennessee vs. Middle Tennessee on ABC had the biggest audience of any women’s first-round game since 2010.
Overall, the Sweet 16 games had 66 percent more average viewers than the 2019 tournament and was the most-viewed Sweet 16 round since 2013. The matchup of No. 1 UConn and No. 5 Iowa averaged 1.6 million views, a 129 percent increase from UConn’s Sweet 16 game in 2019 vs UCLA, and became the second-most watched Sweet 16 in tournament history.
In the Elite Eight, UConn’s game against No. 2 Baylor averaged 1.7 million views and became the mostwatched Elite Eight game 2011 and the most-watched pre-Final Four game of the tournament in over a decade.
Both Final Four games, which were broadcast on ESPN instead of ESPN 2 for the first time since 2015, saw an increase in viewership of 20 percent from the 2019 semifinals. The first semifinal of Stanford vs. South Carolina averaged 1.7 million views (an increase of 11 percent from 2019) while the second semifinal of UConn vs Arizona averaged 2.7 million views and peaked at 3.6 million.
Sunday’s national championship also topped viewer ratings of ABC’s “American Idol” and ESPN’s MLB broadcast of the White Sox vs the Angeles game which immediately followed the championship, according to Sports Media Watch.
Overall, according to ESPN, the Final Four weekend games were the sport’s most-watched since 2012 with an average of 2.9 million viewers across the three games.