The women’s national semifinals attracted the third-largest audience in the past 30 years. According to ESPN PR’s recent update on its X (formerly Twitter) account, South Carolina’s victory over Texas averaged 3.6 million viewers, peaking at 4.6 million. In contrast, UConn’s win over UCLA averaged 4.1 million and peaked at 4.7 million. Collectively, these semifinals rank as the third-most watched since 1995, with the individual games being the ninth and fifth most-watched on ESPN and its platforms.
Friday, ESPN delivered the third-best #NCAAWBB National Semifinals in 30 years 🏀 pic.twitter.com/cCoD7z545T
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) April 5, 2025
Interpreting these numbers presents a mix of good news and bad news. On the downside, although the 2025 semifinals received the third-highest viewership in 30 years, the top two spots belong to the preceding years, as noted by Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. He emphasized that the 2025 semifinals experienced a drop from both 2023 and 2024.
“Friday’s NCAA women’s basketball national semifinals averaged 3.9 million viewers across the ESPN networks, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — ranking behind only the past two years as the highest average since ESPN began carrying the event exclusively in 1995,” Lewis stated. “Viewership fell 65% from last year’s record of 11.0 million and 13% from 4.5 million in 2023.”
On a brighter note, despite the 2025 viewership lagging behind 2023 and 2024, it shows a significant increase compared to 2022, rising by 44% from 2.7 million for the previous Final Four that did not include Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Losing Clark to the WNBA did impact overall viewership, but the growth since three years ago suggests a rising interest in women’s college basketball.