The women's Final Four game between Iowa and UConn on Friday night set a new record as the most-viewed women's basketball game ever, drawing an average of 14.2 million viewers on ESPN. This also marked the largest audience for any ESPN basketball broadcast to date. The previous record was held by the Iowa-LSU game in the Elite Eight, which garnered 12.3 million viewers.
Notably, the audience for the Iowa-UConn matchup peaked at 17 million viewers, solidifying its place as one of the most-watched games in recent years across all sports, excluding college football and the NFL. In comparison, the 2018 Eastern Conference finals Game 7 between Cleveland and Boston had 13.51 million viewers, making it ESPN's most-watched basketball game at the time.
