Ohio State-Iowa on NBC4 most watched women’s regular season game in 14 years

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio State women’s basketball’s thrilling upset win over Iowa Sunday afternoon in Columbus did not just bring a record attendance number.

NBC Sports announced that viewership for the game also broke records, averaging 1.93 million viewers to make it the most-watched regular season women’s college basketball game in 14 years on any network.

After the Buckeyes engineered a 12-point comeback to force overtime against Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes, masses of people tuned into the overtime period with a peak viewership of 3.9 million. The 100-92 win for the Buckeyes broke a 15-game winning streak for Iowa and moved Ohio State to No. 12 in the AP rankings.

Ohio State and Iowa fans turned out in person as well for the game with a Buckeyes women’s program record 18,660 in attendance for the instant classic game.

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The record viewership is another in the continued growth of women’s sports, especially at Ohio State. The Buckeyes athletic program made a record $279.5 million in revenue last fiscal year which included near 100% increases in ticket sales for women’s basketball and gymnastics from FY2022 to FY2023.

Ohio State hopes to extend its winning streak to six on Thursday when they play at Illinois at 7 p.m. That game can be streamed live on Peacock. OSU will conclude the week on Sunday afternoon with an away game versus Purdue.

The OSU-Iowa game was the lead-in to an NFL divisional round playoff game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions, which also brought record viewership numbers. An average of 40.4 million viewers tuned in for the football game, making it NBC’s most-watched NFL divisional round playoff game.

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