ESPN Wraps Up Successful 2024-25 Women’s College Basketball Campaign

Katie Callahan

ESPN’s storied coverage of the 2024-25 women’s college basketball season concluded on Sunday in Tampa, Fla., with the national title bout between No. 2 UConn and No. 1 South Carolina. The battle of the heavyweights scored 8.6 million viewers, the third most-viewed women’s college basketball championship game on ESPN platforms and up 76% from the last time the teams played for the title in 2022. The showdown peaked with 9.9 million viewers as UConn took home its record 12th NCAA trophy.

The fan-favorite Bird & Taurasi Show Presented by AT&T was back for its fourth year and scored 716,000 viewers on ESPN during the Championship Sunday window.

Leading into the championship matchup, the one-hour NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Presented by Capital One delivered 2 million viewers. ESPN’s post-game studio programming, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Post-Game Show Presented by Nissan, delivered 721,000 viewers as the Huskies cut down the nets in Tampa.

The National Semifinals delivered 3.9 million viewers to become the third most-watched since ESPN acquired the rights in 1996. UConn/UCLA sits as the fifth-best Final Four game on ESPN platforms, averaging 4.2 million viewers. The late game peaked with 4.8 million viewers as the Huskies advanced to the National Championship. The early semifinal featuring Texas and South Carolina finished with 3.7 million viewers, the second most-watched early game of the National Semifinal on record. The SEC clash peaked with 4.7 million viewers.

“We are incredibly pleased with the overall growth of women’s basketball this season, “said Dan Margulis, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions. “We saw our best regular season in 16 years, our second-best NCAA Tournament overall and continued excitement surrounding the game. This is a testament to the hard work and dedication from the student-athletes on the court and the continued commitment of ESPN and the NCAA to grow the game of women’s basketball.”

This year’s NCAA Women’s March Madness (57 games) across ESPN platforms averaged 1.2 million viewers, up +22% from the 2023 tournament and a massive +89% from 2022. At the time 2023 was the most-watched NCAA Tournament in over a decade. The 2025 Tournament featured 41 games across ABC and ESPN, the most-ever on our platforms.

This year’s run marks the third most-watched women’s NCAA Tournament, behind only the recording-breaking 2024 season and 2004. Prior to the last three Women’s NCAA Tournaments, no game on ESPN platforms topped the six million-viewer threshold – to date, there have now been eight games to perform above that mark, showcasing the continued growth of the sport.

Additionally, this year’s tournament had 20 games with over 1 million viewers, which is more than any tournament pre-2024.

Sponsors and advertisers came out in full force as well, with Disney Advertising selling out in-game sponsorship opportunities for the Women’s Basketball Championship for the fourth year in a row.

Viewership Success by Round:

Champ Week: Conference Championship Sunday once again saw growth across ESPN, including record-best performances from the ACC and Big 12.

Regular Season: Women’s college basketball delivered its most-watched regular season on ESPN platforms since 2008-09. Viewership for the 2024-25 campaign finished 3% above the historic 2023-24 regular season with a whopping 41% increase over 2022-23. In all, the 87 women’s games across ESPN platforms averaged 280,000 viewers.

It was also the most-consumed season on record for ESPN platforms with more than 2.9 billion total minutes watched of live women’s college basketball games. In addition, ESPN platforms delivered 15 games with more than 500,000 viewers during the regular season – the most on record in a single season. This included an ABC doubleheader of UConn/South Carolina (1.8 million) and LSU/Texas (1.7 million) that rank as ESPN Platforms third and fourth most-viewed regular season games on record.

The regular season on ESPN platforms was also up 27% year-over-year among adults 18-34.

Growth across ESPN Social, ESPN App, ESPN.com and ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge
Throughout the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, content on ESPN social media generated 42.7 million engagements and 396.7 million total views, up 125% and 214% respectively compared to 2023. Also, women’s college basketball content on ESPN.com and the ESPN App reached more than 17.6 million unique users (up 2%) with more than 300 million page views (up 42%) over 2023, and the ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge set a new all-time record with more than 3.4 million completed brackets, up 4% over 2024.

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