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UConn’s 12th national championship win drew a massive audience for women’s college basketball—though it was well short of the record numbers Caitlin Clark and Iowa drew when they lost to South Carolina last year.
The 2025 women’s national championship game between the Huskies and Gamecocks drew 8.5 million viewers on ESPN platforms, the third-most-watched national title game, ESPN announced Monday. The game aired on ABC and had an ESPN simulcast featuring Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi that contributed 703,000 viewers.
The viewership for the March Madness finale, which saw UConn defeat South Carolina, 82–59, was down 55% vs. last year’s record 18.9 million when the Gamecocks beat the Caitlin Clark–led Hawkeyes.
It was also down 14% compared to the 9.9 million viewers who watched Angel Reese and LSU beat Iowa in 2023.
This year’s game, however, drew 75% more viewers than the 4.85 million who watched the 2022 game between the same two teams. That featured a few names from this year’s title game, including Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, who both started for UConn, while Bree Hall and Sania Feagin came off the bench for South Carolina.
That game, however, aired on ESPN. The women’s final started airing on ABC in 2023.
ESPN also announced that full tournament viewership numbers will be released on Tuesday.
This year’s Final Four was also the third-most-watched for that round, though it was down 64% vs. last year. The previous three rounds were all the second-most-watched, while the first round was the second-most-watched since 2013.
It’s clear from Caitlin Clark’s first year outside of the NCAA and her WNBA rookie season that she is an anomaly in driving up viewership. However, it’s also evident that there is significant viewership retention that has boosted ratings compared to the previous era. The question is whether women’s hoops can sustain and steadily grow their fan base.
