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According to ESPN, the NCAA women’s tournament saw a surge in viewership in the first two rounds. The worldwide leader in sports received 250,000 viewers for the first round of the women’s March Madness tournament, a 27% increase from last year. Four premier games had topped over 400,000 viewers, and two games, No. 4 Tennessee’s 95-50 win over No. 13 Saint Louis and No. 2 Connecticut’s 95-52 win over No. 15 Vermont, drew more than 600,000 viewers on ABC.
ESPN reported a 30% increase in viewers for the second round of the women’s march madness tournament at 615,000. This year’s most-watched tournament game was No. 2 Iowa’s 74-66 win over No. 10 Georgia, which attracted 1.4 million viewers. A 68 percent increase over last year’s top-watched second-round game, No. 10 Creighton’s upset win over No. 2 Iowa. The network saw a 28% increase in viewership over the first two rounds and 2.1 billion minutes which set a record.
The men’s opening-round games had set records in their own right. 8 million viewers watched multiple networks, including CBS Sports, TBS, TNT, and TruTV. That was up 2% from last season. It was the biggest opening day in eight years. That number beats the 7.5 million average Fox Sports 2022 MLB All-Star Game coverage viewers. On the other hand, the NFL’s Pro Bowl “reimagined” received over 6 million views.
