WCBB NCAA Tournament Was 2nd-Most Watched Ever amid Paige Bueckers, UConn Title Run

This year's women's March Madness was one of the most popular NCAA tournaments ever.

Per ESPN, the tournament as a whole was watched for 8.5 billion minutes, making it the second-most consumed women's tournament on record.

The championship matchup between UConn and South Carolina on Sunday drew 8.5 million viewers and peaked at 9.8 million, making it the third-most watched NCAA women's national championship on ESPN's platforms.

The record for the most-watched women's title game was set last year when South Carolina took on Iowa. That game drew 18.7 million viewers and peaked with a whopping 24 million viewers. It was also the most-watched basketball game at any level for men's or women's since 2019 and the most-watched sporting event outside of the Olympics or football since 2019.

Those ratings can largely be attributed to Caitlin Clark, who was one of the most popular college athletes in recent memory when she was playing for Iowa.

The second-most-watched championship game was the 2023 title game between Angel Reese's LSU and Clark's Iowa, and that game drew 9.9 million viewers.

While this year's game didn't get quite as many viewers as the last two title games, it had 4.9 million more viewers than the 2022 championship, which also featured UConn and South Carolina. That surge in viewers is just another example of how women's college basketball has reached new heights in popularity in recent years.

The matchup between the Huskies and Gamecocks may have drawn plenty of interest, but it wasn't exactly a nail-biter. UConn led by double digits heading into the second half and managed to coast to a dominant 82-59 win.

Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong led the way for the Huskies with 24 points each and Paige Bueckers, who is gearing up for the WNBA draft later this month, dropped 17.