ESPN delivers stellar 2025-26 women's college basketball campaign

· NCAA DI Women's Basketball Tournament finished as the second most-watched on ESPN networks with 1.3 million avg. viewers

· Second most-consumed Women's Tournament on record with 9 billion minutes of live games watched

· Champ Week delivered continued growth

· Regular season viewership up, most-viewed season since 2008-09

ESPN's expansive coverage of the 2025-26 women's college basketball season finished Sunday in Phoenix, Ariz., with the national title bout between No.1 South Carolina and No. 1 UCLA. The battle of the top seeds scored 9.9 million viewers, the third most-viewed women's college basketball championship game on ESPN networks and up 15% from last year's title matchup. The showdown peaked with 10.7 million viewers as UCLA took home its first NCAA trophy. The game ranks as ESPN's third most-watched all-time even with the third-largest margin of victory on record for the championship.

The new alt-cast Courtside at the Women's Final Four Presented by AT&T recorded 771,000 viewers on ESPN/ESPNU during the Championship Sunday window in its first season.

Leading into the championship matchup, NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Presented by Capital One pregame show recorded 2.5 million viewers. ESPN's post-game studio programming, the NCAA Women's Basketball Post-Game Show Presented by Nissan, registered 759,000 viewers as the Bruins cut down the nets in Phoenix.

The National Semifinals scored 5.2 million viewers to become the second most-watched since ESPN acquired the rights in 1996. South-Carolina/UConn sits as the fourth-best Final Four game on ESPN networks, averaging 5.4 million viewers. The early game peaked with 7.7 million viewers as the Gamecocks advanced to the National Championship. The late semifinal featuring Texas and UCLA finished with 5 million viewers and peaked with 5.2 million, becoming the fifth most-watched NCAA semifinal on ESPN networks.

"We are thrilled with the continued momentum we have seen across women's basketball this season," said Dan Margulis, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions. "We delivered our strongest regular season performance in 17 years, the second-best NCAA Tournament overall and continued to grow excitement around the game. That success reflects the dedication of the student-athletes on the court, as well as the commitment of ESPN, the conferences and the NCAA to grow the game of women's basketball."

This year's NCAA Women's March Madness (58 games) across ESPN networks averaged 1.3 million viewers, up +5% year-over-year. The 2026 Tournament featured 41 games across ABC and ESPN, tying last year's mark for the most across both networks.

This year's run marks ESPN networks' second most-watched women's NCAA Tournament, behind only the recording-breaking 2024 season. Prior to the last four Women's NCAA Tournaments, no game on ESPN networks topped the six million-viewer threshold -nine games have now delivered above that mark, showcasing the continued growth of the sport.

Additionally, this year's tournament had 21 games with over one million viewers, topping last year's total.

Viewership Success by Round:

· Elite 8: 2.7 million viewers
· Third most-watched Elite 8 on record
· Notre Dame/UConn (3.1M - 4th), Duke/UCLA (2.8M - 8th), TCU/South Carolina (2.7M - 9th) all rank within the Top 10 for the most-watched Elite 8 games on record

· Sweet 16: 1.6 million viewers
· Third most-watched Sweet 16 on record
· ESPN averaged 1.4 million viewers across its six games, registering the network's second-best Sweet 16 ever, up 2% YoY.
· This year scored three of the top 10 Sweet 16 games of all-time: Kentucky/Texas (2.2M - 6th), Louisville/Michigan (2.0M - 8th), UNC/UConn (2.0M - 10th)
· UNC/UConn was also the second most-watched weekday Sweet 16 game ever

· Second Round: 1.0 million viewers, up 3% YoY
· Second most-watched Second Round on record behind only 2024
· ESPN averaged its second-best viewership for this round with 1.1 million viewers
· USC/South Carolina (1.8M - 4th), Syracuse/UConn (1.5M - 7th), Notre Dame/Ohio State (1.5M - 8th) and Virginia/Iowa (1.4M - 10th) all rank within the Top 10 for most-watched Second Round games on record
· Virginia/Iowa on ESPN peaked with 1.9 million viewers (on a Monday afternoon)

· First Round: 401,000 viewers, up 9% YoY
· Second most-consumed First Round on record with 1.3 billion minutes of live tournament games watched
· Second most-watched First Round since 2013 (fewer national linear windows)
· ESPN scored its second-best First Round since 2008 - averaging 515,000 viewers, up 10% YoY
· UTSA/UConn (970,000) and Southern/South Carolina (958,000) finished as the sixth and seventh most-watched First Round games on record, respectively
· Tennessee/NC State averaged 767,000 viewers, the most-watched weekday First Round game ever

· First Four: 341,000 viewers, up 93% from 2024-25
· Most-watched First Four on record (since the round began in 2022)
· Richmond/Nebraska registered 456,000 viewers, the most-watched First Four game on record
· Stephen F. Austin/Missouri State (354,000), Arizona State/Virginia (314,000) and Samford/Southern (237,000) now rank as the second, third and fourth most-watched First Fours, respectively Champ Week: Conference Championship Sunday once again saw growth across ESPN, including record-best performances from the ACC and Big 12.

· SEC Championship (Texas/South Carolina) scored 1.4 million viewers
· The second-best SEC Champ game on record

· ACC Championship (Louisville/Duke) delivered 955,000 viewers, up 19% year-over-year
· Best ACC Champ game on record

· Big 12 Championship (West Virginia/TCU) registered 853,000 viewers, up 12% year-over-year
· Best Big 12 Champ game on record

· Women's College GameDay Covered by State Farm averaged 572,000 viewers from the SEC Championship, up 44% YoY.

Regular Season: Women's college basketball delivered its most-watched regular season on ESPN networks since 2008-09. Viewership for the 2025-26 campaign finished 19% above the historic 2024-25 regular season. In all, the 89 women's games across ESPN networks averaged 330,000 viewers.

It was also the most-consumed season on record for ESPN networks with more than 3.6 billion total minutes watched of live women's college basketball games. In addition, ESPN networks scored 20 games with more than 500,000 viewers during the regular season - the most on record in a single season, topping the '24-'25 campaign by five games.

ESPN networks were home to six of the top 10 women's college basketball regular season games across all networks and 29 of the top 30 on cable.

The Valentine's Day matchup between South Carolina and LSU finished as the top game across all networks this season with 1.7 million viewers. The game peaked with 2.2 million viewers, making it ESPN's second-most watched regular season game since 2010.

ABC and ESPN had a combined 42 games on their networks this season, the most ever.

Women's College GameDay: The four regular season Women's College GameDay Covered by State Farm shows were up 23% year-over-year and the show from Baton Rouge (Feb. 14) delivered 1.2 million viewers, the best regular season episode on record.

The ESPN Women's Tournament Challenge set a new all-time record with more than 3.4 million completed brackets, up 5% over 2025.

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