The 2025 women’s March Madness tournament was never going to surpass the heights of last year. The Caitlin Clark Effect is unlike anything ever seen in sports.
However, this year’s tournament has shown significant increases among key business metrics that indicate a level of retention in fan interest from last year.
Life After Caitlin Clark
The tournament has averaged 967,000 viewers so far through the Elite Eight, which is down 31% from the 1.4 million it averaged at this point last year. However, it is up 47% vs. 2023.
From the round of 32 onward, each round has been the second-most-watched in history, only trailing last year. The first round was the second-most-watched since 2013.
The spikes from Clark and Iowa’s games are just too difficult to top. The 2024 Elite Eight game between Clark and Iowa against rival Angel Reese and LSU drew 12.3 million viewers—which at the time was the most-watched game in women’s college basketball history.
But this year, despite a 53% decline in viewership for the Elite Eight, all four games are still among the top 10 most-watched games of the round on record.
Attendance doesn’t follow the same pattern, but it’s still trending in the right direction. This year’s first two rounds had 224,972 total attendees, the third highest on record, behind 2023 (231,677) and 2024 (292,456).
The regionals had the same pattern as this year drew 84,754 total fans, just a tick under the 85,275 in 2023—the first year the women’s tournament moved to two regional sites instead of four—and 103,587 last year.
Bueckers Bump?
The Caitlin Clark Effect also allowed more fans to see certain players, who were able to build their profiles by facing the Hawkeyes guard in the tournament last year. This includes Paige Bueckers, Hailey Van Lith, and Flau’Jae Johnson.
Clark’s impact may not be replicable, but there is a chance that Final Four stars can benefit from playing Bueckers, who told ESPN last week that she will enter the 2025 WNBA draft. UConn was in the most-watched game in each of the first two rounds and would have likely been in the most-watched games of the last two if not for falling in the ESPN slot instead of ABC.
UConn faces UCLA in the Final Four, and the Bruins have two stars expected to return next season in Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice. If the Huskies advance to the national championship, they could face Texas and sophomore star Rori Harmon or also challenge a deep South Carolina roster chasing back-to-back titles.
Bueckers’s effect has already rubbed off on her teammates like returning senior Azzi Fudd and rookie sensation Sarah Strong, but a championship run alongside the potential WNBA No. 1 pick should only elevate their popularity.
