Caitlin Clark’s historic performance in Iowa’s win over Ohio State draws record TV ratings as women’s college hoops audiences continue to grow ahead of March Madness
- More than four million at its peak tuned in to watch Clark and Iowa defeat Ohio State
- It was the second most watched college basketball game of the season
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The largest television audience to watch a regular-season women’s basketball game tuned in to watch Caitlin Clark’s game-changing performance on Sunday.
The Iowa sensation scored 35 points in a Hawkeye win over Ohio State, passing Pete Maravich to become the NCAA’s all-time overall leading scorer.
Maravich held the record for 54 years and Clark accomplished the feat with a pair of free throws at the end of the first half.
The game reached its highest viewership late in the second half with 4.42 million, while the average viewership was 3.39 million.
No regular-season women’s basketball game has had more viewers since the 1999 clash between titans UConn and Tennessee.
Clark is a major sports star and continues to set ratings records for women’s basketball
Iowa vs. Ohio State was the second most-watched college basketball game of the season, behind Michigan State vs. Arizona, which followed an NFL Thanksgiving game on FOX.
The monster appreciation to see Clark continues the upward trend of interest in women’s basketball.
When Iowa played LSU in the national championship game last year, the game peaked at 12.6 million viewers, a 103 percent increase over the 2022 championship game.
With an average of 9.9 million viewers, LSU-Iowa was the most watched women’s basketball game of all time.
That record will probably be broken in about a month.