The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championship game between winners the Florida Gators and the Houston Cougars hit new viewership highs.
With Florida running out 65-63 winners over Houston, CBS reported that the national championship game averaged over 18 million viewers according to Nielsen ratings, with an audience peak of 21.1 million in the closing stages of the game.
This became the most-watched men’s March Madness championship game since Virginia’s overtime victory over Texas Tech in 2019 which was CBS also a broadcast, averaging 19.63 million viewers.
The 2025 national championship grew its audience by 22% from last year’s final, which was televised by TBS, TNT and truTV, where UConn beat Alabama 86-72.
The Cougars caused an upset en route to the national championship game when they defeated the favourites, the Duke Blue Devils, 70-67 in the Final Four, sending home Cooper Flagg, the projected number one overall draft pick for the 2025 NBA Draft, and his team.
Flagg’s popularity and Duke’s notoriety as one of college basketball’s most successful teams also helped viewership. The three Final Four games averaged an audience of 16.4 million viewers, the highest for a Final Four in eight years and a 21% increase from last year.
Women’s final suffers with no Clark
Unlike the men’s March Madness Final Four, the women’s suffered a decline in viewership compared to last year.
Largely attributed to the loss of collegiate phenom Caitlin Clark, who has just come off winning WNBA Rookie of the Year last season, the women’s Final Four games declined by 64% on ESPN from last year.
UConn vs. UCLA and South Carolina vs. Texas averaged 3.9 million viewers, a fall from the 10.8 million viewers drawn during the 2024 Final Four.
Despite this, the 2025 women’s Final Four still became the second most-watched on ESPN, drawing more viewers than the 2023 edition of the competition, which featured Clark and fellow WNBA rookie Angel Reese.
Clark is already arguably one of the US’ most popular female athletes. All 10 of the most-watched regular season WNBA games this season featured Clark and her team, the Indiana Fever, as she also contributed to new attendance and ticket sales records last season.
