LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa on Sunday was the most-viewed women’s college basketball game of all time, drawing 9.9 million viewers across all ESPN and ABC platforms, according to a company release.
Those numbers topped several of last season’s biggest college football games, including LSU-Alabama (7.58 million), the Big 12 championship (9.41 million), the Pac-12 championship (5.97 million), the ACC championship (3.47 million), the Sugar Bowl (9.14 million) and the Orange Bowl (4.6 million), among others, according to Sports Media Watch.
The LSU-Iowa numbers blow away averages for NBA regular-season games (1.6 million last season) and were within shouting distance of the ratings for last year’s NBA Finals.
The title series between Golden State and Boston averaged 12.4 million viewers per game, and the deciding Game 6 drew nearly 14 million viewers.
Sunday’s LSU-Iowa game peaked at 12.6 million viewers, according to ESPN.
Ratings for Friday night’s NCAA semifinal games were also up from the previous year.
According to ESPN, across its platforms, the semifinal games averaged 4.5 million viewers, up 66% from last season’s Final Four games.
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