LSU women’s basketball national championship win delivers record ratings for ESPN

LSU’s win over Iowa for the women’s basketball national championship was a ratings smash for ESPN.

ESPN announced Monday that the game drew 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 12.6 million. The game was broadcast on ABC and ESPN2 and also available to ESPN+ streaming subscribers. It is the most-viewed college sports event ever on the ESPN+ platform.

?.? ??????? ??????? ? Record-breaking #NationalChampionship thriller between @LSUwbkb & @IowaWBB makes TV history:

? Most-viewed #NCAAWBB game on record
? Up 103% YOY
? Peaked at 12.6M
? Most-viewed college event ever on @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/UZLVNuP3Sf

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) April 3, 2023

Sunday’s game is now the most-ever viewed NCAA women’s basketball game on record. As far as national championships, it’s 103% year-over-year increase from 2022’s South Carolina-UConn contest, which aired on ESPN and ESPN2.

Sports Media Watch shared more impressive numbers. Sunday’s game outdrew the previous women’s tournament record of 8.1 million for a Virginia-Stanford national semifinal on CBS in 1992. Airing on ABC, Sunday’s championship clash marked the first women’s title game on broadcast television since 1995, when UConn-Tennessee drew 7.44 million viewers for CBS.

The championship game had more viewers than last season’s LSU-Alabama football game, per Stewart Mandel of The Athletic.

For some CFB perspective on 9.9 million viewers for the women’s championship game.

That’s more than last season’s:

— Sugar, Orange and Cotton Bowls
— Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC title games
— Notre Dame-USC
— LSU-Alabama
— Ohio St-Penn St
— Bama-Texas A&M primetime on CBS

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 3, 2023

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.