Caitlin Clark can claim another record — the most watched women’s college basketball game in history.
Iowa’s 94-87 victory over LSU in the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA tournament Monday night averaged 12.3 million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen. That makes it one of the most-viewed games in any sport other than NFL football over the past year.
Iowa-LSU outdrew all but one of the five games in last year’s NBA Finals, along with the clinching game of last year’s World Series (11.48 million).
Clark scored 41 points as the Hawkeyes avenged last year’s loss to the Tigers in the national championship game.
The viewership surpassed the 11.84 million who watched the 1983 NCAA championship game between Southern California and Louisiana Tech. LSU coach Kim Mulkey played for Louisiana Tech and was matched up against USC great Cheryl Miller in that game, which the Trojans won 64-58.
It was also the most watched men’s or women’s college basketball game ever on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience.
According to ESPN, the 2002 women’s national championship game between UConn and Oklahoma had the old mark at 5.68 million. ESPN’s most watched men’s game was the 2008 regular-season matchup between Duke and North Carolina, which drew 5.61 million.
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