The women’s NCAA Tournament is chock full of new stars, but attendance through the first two rounds has dropped significantly minus last year’s household names including Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
It was always going to be difficult to match last year’s record numbers, which saw a total of 292,456 fans attend games on the campuses of the top four seeds through the first two rounds. That is compared to 224,972 fan this year, representing a 30 percent drop, according to Front Office Sports.
The 2025 attendance figures are also slightly below the previous record of 231,677 through the first two rounds set in 2023. However, they still represent the third-highest attendance leading into the Sweet 16 in tournament history.
Beginning with the Sweet 16, the tournament will be played at neutral sites.
Clark led Iowa to consecutive Final Four appearances, and the Hawkeyes drew sellout crowds of 28,764 through their first two games last year. This year, sixth-seeded Iowa lost on the road against Oklahoma in the second round.
Television ratings have also taken a hit despite the presence of stars that include UConn’s Paige Bueckers. However, the tournament did lose Southern California star JuJu Watkins to a season-ending torn ACL in the second round.
According to ESPN PR, this year’s first round coverage drew an average of 367,000 viewers across all games. That was led by Bueckers and the Huskies drawing 1.1 million viewers on ABC for their 69-point blowout win over Arkansas State.
While the first-round ratings were up 43 percent from 2023 and represented the second most-watched on record, it was also down from last year’s record of 469,000 viewers for the first round — a nearly 22 percent drop.
The Sweet 16 begins on Friday in Birmingham, Ala., and Spokane, Wash., while this year’s Final Four will take place in Tampa.
–Field Level Media
