Women’s college basketball teams now attract average TV audiences larger than the men’s teams

Question

Recent viewership data shows that women’s college basketball has grown dramatically, especially during the 2023–2024 season, but the claim is only partially accurate. There were several major women’s games — especially those featuring top players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — that outdrew comparable men’s games. For example, the 2024 NCAA women’s championship game attracted a larger audience than the men’s final that year, a historic first. However, this does not mean that women’s basketball has a higher average viewership across the entire season. Regular-season men’s games, conference tournaments, and many March Madness matchups still generally draw larger average audiences than women’s games.

The growing popularity of women’s basketball reflects increased media coverage, star power, social-media presence, and the faster pace of the modern women’s game. But evaluating this claim requires looking at averages, not isolated high-profile matchups. When averaged across full seasons, men’s college basketball still maintains higher overall TV viewership. Women’s basketball is closing the gap faster than ever before, and high-profile games can outperform men’s games, but on a season-long basis, the claim overstates the situation.

Answer 1

This week, I checked the accuracy of the claim that Women’s college basketball teams now attract average TV audiences larger than the men’s teams. This claim was written by Sophia de Haff. I was unable to find any information on her on Google searches and LinkedIn. However, through her profile on News Detective, I was able to see that she has been on the site for only a month and has not made other posts. A result of not having any other claims proves that she is not an expert in this topic. Additionally, this user was not able to build her credibility by using reliable sources, because the link she listed as a source took me to the NCAA website, but said “page not found”. Overall, the author and their sources do not give me much confidence in their claim. 

This claim is not accurate, for there is no data that proves that women's collegiate basketball is bringing in larger viewership than men's. Women’s basketball has actually seen a decrease in views over the past year. “So far this year, viewership of NCAA women’s basketball games on ESPN platforms is averaging 234,000, down 18% versus the same point last year. However, it is up 17% relative to the 2022–2023 season, Clark’s junior year” (Front Office Sports). On the other hand, men's basketball continued to break new records with viewers throughout the season: “​​ESPN averaged 968,000 viewers, up 9% year-over-year – the best season in six years” (ESPN). These two quotes illustrate that men's basketball has continued to lead drastically when it comes to the number of viewers. Additionally, we see that women’s viewers have decreased while men’s have continually risen. 

However, there is no doubt that women's collegiate basketball has been gaining more publicity and support over the past few years. A surge of extremely talented and popular players has helped change the face of college basketball. “More recently, the rivalry between Clark of Iowa and Angel Reese of Louisiana State pushed the sport forward once again. Their games attracted sellout crowds, even on the road, and broke TV viewership records” (New York Times). Over the past few years, these athletes and others, including Paige Bueckers, have been the face of the sport and have taken the media by storm. I had never really given college basketball much of a thought until I saw hundreds of clips of various athletes and rivalries. They brought necessary attention to the sport and helped create very passionate fan bases. 

One crucial fact about the popularity of women's college basketball is that at the end of March Madness 2024, the women's finals received more viewers than the men's. This broke records for not only the most streamed womens game but also the first time they led with viewers, “The final game, between South Carolina's Gamecocks and the University of Iowa's Hawkeyes, averaged about 18.7 million viewers and peaked at a whopping 24 million combined on ESPN and ABC, making it the first time in history that a women's final has drawn a larger TV audience than the men's, according to ESPN. In contrast, the victory of the men's Division 1 UConn Huskies over Purdue averaged 14.82 million on TBS and TNT” (NPR). This showcases that there is, in fact, a drastic rise in support for women's basketball and that more people are continuing to pay attention to games with their favorite stars playing or important games. 

Overall, the claim that there is a higher average for women’s games compared to men’s is false. The sources listed gained their information directly from data that gave the player or viewer statistics, which builds the opposing credibility. I am nothing but hopeful that women’s sports will continue to receive the recognition and loyalty that these athletes and coaches deserve. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/briefing/womens-basketball.html 

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2025/03/espns-presentation-of-mens-college-basketball-finishes-regular-season-up-year-over-year-across-espn-platforms/ 

https://frontofficesports.com/caitlin-clark-effect-lasting-impact-on-womens-college-hoops-viewership/ 

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/10/1243801501/womens-ncaa-championship-tv-ratings 

Answer 2

The idea that the women's college basketball team is drawing more attention to games is correct; however they are not averaging greater rates than the men's college basketball teams. While the enthusiasm for the claim is incredibly high, ESPN's data expresses that men’s college basketball drew 968,000 viewers this year, up 9% from the previous year, while women's college basketball averaged 234,000, down 18%. The credible data indicates that while women’s basketball rates have generally gone down, men’s basketball continues to command the largest share of viewers. This is not to imply that women's basketball has not grown, as, for instance, NPR stated that the 2024 March Madness final between South Carolina and Iowa had an average of 18.7 million viewers, breaking the record for the most viewers ever for the men’s final. This means that yes, women’s basketball has been gaining publicity and overall support from greater audiences in recent years, which was helped establish by collegiate athletes such as Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Juju Watkins, Angel Reese, and Kate Martin. Passionate fan bases have been created as a result of their different college rivalries and tough performances, which have contributed to sellout viewers and increased media coverage. So while the women's college basketball teams have not yet performed greater than the men’s, there still is a great amount of ground-breaking attraction that has surfaced over the past couple of years.

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2025/03/espns-presentation-of-mens-college-basketball-finishes-regular-season-up-year-over-year-across-espn-platforms/

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/10/1243801501/womens-ncaa-championship-tv-ratings