Once again, the Iowa Hawkeyes are leading ESPN to record audiences for women’s basketball.
Last week’s Elite Eight matchup between the Hawkeyes and the LSU Tigers drew 12.3M viewers, making it the network’s most-watched college basketball game ever. It’s also the largest audience ever for a women’s college basketball game, across any network.
In addition, the Iowa-LSU matchup is ESPN’s second most-viewed college basketball game since 2012, including professional basketball.
On the heels of sky-high viewership for the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight sustained that momentum with record performance as well. The Elite Eight averaged 6.2M viewers across all games, making it the most-watched on record, up an impressive 184% year-over-year.
That also blows viewership for the Sweet 16 out of the water, considering that portion of the tournament averaged just over 2M viewers. The most-watched game was Iowa-Colorado, which saw 6.9M viewers.
UConn defeated USC in the second most-watched game of the Elite Eight with 6.7M tuning in for that matchup.
South Carolina-Oregon State and NC State-Texas rounded out the Top 4 games with 3.1M viewers and 2.5M viewers, respectively.
