LSU-Iowa women's college basketball national championship game draws record ratings
The LSU-Iowa NCAA Division I national championship game, which was shown on ABC on Sunday afternoon, was the most-watched women's college basketball game of all time, ESPN announced on Monday.
No. 3 seed LSU's 102-85 victory against No. 2 seed Iowa averaged 9.9 million viewers, with a peak of 12.6 million, across all platforms, the network said.
That's up 103% from last year's UConn-South Carolina national championship game, which was shown on ESPN on a Sunday night.
The LSU-Iowa game was also the most-watched college event ever on ESPN+, the network said.
The announcement followed record ratings for the two Final Four semifinal games that were shown on ESPN on Friday night.
𝟗.𝟗 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 🤯 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
ESPN said the LSU-Virginia Tech early game on Friday night averaged 3.4 million viewers with a peak of 5 million across network platforms. That was up 57% from last year's early game.
Iowa-South Carolina averaged 5.5 million with a peak of 6.6 million, up 72% from last year's late game.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU, Iowa draw record ratings for women's basketball championship