• by Wayne Friedman , April 3, 2024

The highly touted rematch game between Iowa and LSU in the NCAA women's basketball tournament on ESPN -- this year in an "Elite 8" round -- became the most-watched women's basketball game ever, averaging 12.3 million Nielsen-measured viewers.

A year ago, LSU became NCAA Women's College Basketball Champions, beating Iowa 102-85 in the championship game, earning 9.9 million viewers across ABC and ESPN2.

The previous all-time women's basketball viewing record was the NCAA 1983 title game featuring USC vs. Louisiana Tech on CBS, which pulled in 11.8 million viewers.

The game, in which Iowa prevailed with a score of 94-87, featured Iowa's Caitlin Clark, who scored 41 points. Clark became the all-time college basketball scoring leader -- women's and men's -- earlier this year. 

In an analysis of data from Vizio's Inscape data unit, TV measurement company iSpot said the game earned 10.61 million in-home viewers two years and older viewers with another 3.77 million viewers coming from out-of-home platforms. 

The game increased viewership from around 5 million at the start of the game to 12.5 million by the game's end, according to iSpot.

EDO Ad EnGage said the game produced 105 commercial airings yielding 162.6 million impressions, coming from an estimated $1.5 million in national TV advertising revenue.