Women’s title game viewership passes men’s for 1st time
The viewership for the men’s college basketball national championship game went up, but it was nothing compared to the women’s game; the women’s national championship had the higher viewership for the first time in history.
The national championship game April 8 between UConn and Purdue drew 14.8 million viewers across TBS, TNT and TruTV, according to Nielson. It was a slight increase compared to the 2023 men’s title game between the Huskies and San Diego State, which was 14.7 million.
However it was another low viewership figure for the men’s game. Last year’s national championship was the least-watched title game in recorded history; this year’s game is the second lowest. It also was well behind the women’s national championship game between Iowa and South Carolina on April 7, which drew 18.7 million across ESPN and ABC to become the most-watched women’s basketball game ever. The number of viewers peaked at 24 million for the Hawkeyes and Gamecocks matchup that was the most-watched sporting event since 2019 – with the exception of football and the Olympics – according to ESPN.
It’s no secret the women’s NCAA Tournament had much more interest and intrigue than the men’s edition. The most-watched record for a women’s basketball game was broken several times throughout the tournament, all games in which Iowa star Caitlin Clark played in. The men’s NCAA Tournament didn’t have any star player near the same level as Clark, and even though the national championship game was played between two of the best teams the entire season, it aired on TBS rather than CBS and it had a late start time of 9:20 p.m. EDT.
The men’s national championship game hasn’t had more than 20 million viewers since 2017, when North Carolina and Gonzaga drew just under 23 million viewers on CBS. Monday’s game resulted in Connecticut beating Purdue to win its second consecutive national title.