UConn vs South Carolina, LSU vs Texas NCAA Women's Basketball Games Net Big Audiences

Two top women's college basketball games last weekend drew staggering viewership metrics.

Feb 16, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao (0) drives past UConn Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

February 16 was undoubtedly the best day of the 2024-25 NCAA women's college basketball regular season calendar.

This is because the UConn Huskies faced the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks in a clash between two national powerhouses. Right after that game ended (which UConn dominated), Kim Mulkey's LSU Tigers squad headed to Texas to face the Longhorns (which Texas ultimately won).

Both of these games were broadcast on ABC and ESPN. And according to a February 19 X post from ESPN PR, each drew massive viewership.

"#NCAAWBB fans TUNED IN for Sunday's ABC doubleheader 🤯

"🏀 3rd & 4th most-watched regular season WCBB games all-time on ESPN platforms
"🏀 Most-watched regular season women's since '10
"🏀 UConn-South Carolina: 1.8M avg. viewers
"🏀 LSU-Texas: 1.7M avg. viewers," their X post wrote, along with a graphic depicting all of these impressive metrics.

#NCAAWBB fans TUNED IN for Sunday's ABC doubleheader 🤯

🏀 3rd & 4th most-watched regular season WCBB games all-time on ESPN platforms
🏀 Most-watched regular season women's @CollegeGameDay since '10
🏀 UConn-South Carolina: 1.8M avg. viewers
🏀 LSU-Texas: 1.7M avg. viewers pic.twitter.com/4l9GKdo0tq

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) February 19, 2025

The fact that these two contests between who were then top-seven teams in the country each drew well over 1.5 million viewers is staggering, and serves as additional proof that women's basketball is booming right now.

This isn't the only impressive women's basketball viewership metric that has been revealed over the past 24 hours. The audience numbers for the semifinal and championship broadcast of Unrivaled's one-on-one tournament were released on February 18 and showed that it averaged 377,000 viewers while peaking at 398,000 viewers when former UConn Huskies Napheesa Collier and Aaliyah Edwards competed in the championship game.

These February 16 NCAAW numbers are just a taste of what's to come during March Madness, especially if these top teams meet again in the tournament's later rounds.