In the initial stages of March Madness, there were few unexpected losses that shattered brackets, but it appeared that television audiences found these games just as exciting nonetheless.
As a diehard basketball fan, I’ve been absolutely thrilled by the massive viewership the men’s NCAA tournament has been pulling in on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV this year. In fact, these first two rounds have attracted their largest audience in over 30 years!
On the other hand, while the women’s tournament on ESPN and ABC hasn’t quite matched last year’s record-breaking ratings, it’s still comfortably surpassing every other season from the past decade-plus. It just goes to show how much passion there is for basketball across the board!
Over the course of the second-round matches on Sunday, the men’s games collectively drew an audience of approximately 9.4 million viewers across four different networks. This viewership figure represents the highest opening weekend average since 1993. It is worth noting that until 2011, CBS was the only network to broadcast the tournament, and out-of-home ratings were not included in the total until more recent years. Despite these factors, this year’s tournament has already surpassed last year’s viewership at the same point by 4 percent, with 9.04 million viewers. The peak viewership of 15.3 million was recorded during the late afternoon slot, primarily due to Kentucky’s victory over Illinois.
To start off, the inaugural match of the women’s competition garnered approximately 367,000 viewers across ESPN channels and ABC. This is a decrease from the first round viewership of last year (469,000), but it outperformed any other year since 2013, including 2023 with only 256,000 viewers. The highest-watched game was Connecticut’s dominant victory over Arkansas State on ABC, which drew in 1.1 million viewers. As of the publishing date, viewership numbers for round two, which concluded on Monday evening, were not available.
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2025-03-26 00:25