For the third straight week, there's a new most-watched women's basketball game of the 2025-26 season. South Carolina's Valentine's Day win over LSU now holds the top spot.
The Gamecocks ' victory averaged 1.7 million viewers on ABC, ESPN announced . It marked a big TV ratings win for the first regular-season women's college basketball game in the network's Saturday primetime window.
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The matchup peaked at 2.2 million viewers and became ESPN's fourth-most watched women's college basketball regular-season game on record. South Carolina has now played in the two most-watched games of the year so far, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel data compiled by On3.
ESPN's special edition of College GameDay on Saturday, which aired in primetime ahead of LSU vs. South Carolina, also scored a record audience. An average of 1.2 million viewers watched the program to become the most-watched episode of women's GameDay ever, ESPN said.
Saturday's game topped the previous mark set Feb. 8 when South Carolina's victory over Tennessee averaged 1.46 million viewers on ABC. It also continues a red-hot stretch for college women's basketball TV ratings with four games averaging more than 1 million viewers in the last three weeks.
Feb. 1 marked a huge day for women's hoops as two games hit 1 million average viewers. UConn's win over Tennessee led the way with 1.21 million viewers to become FOX's most-watched game of the year, while Texas' victory against Oklahoma averaged 1.10 million viewers on ABC that same day.
All told, five women's basketball games have hit the 1 million mark. The CyHawk rivalry game between Iowa and Iowa State was the first to do so at 1.03 million on Dec. 10 in the Jimmy V Classic. That remains the most-watched game to air on ESPN this year.
LSU took a lead against South Carolina after the first quarter on Saturday, but the Gamecocks rallied to go up 41-40 at halftime. They then stayed out in front in the final two quarters en route to the 79-72 victory at the PMAC to improve to 25-2 on the year.
Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 21 points while Raven Johnson added 19. Madina Okot also had a big night with 12 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. On the LSU side, Flau'jae Johnson dropped 21 points to go with eight rebounds while Mikaylah Williams had 11 points.
Entering a loaded Valentine's Day slate of games, ESPN said its women's college basketball TV ratings were surging. Viewership was up 33% year-over-year across the family of networks, which now has more games airing on ABC.
