Cleveland, Ohio - A record-breaking average audience of 18.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the finale of Caitlin Clark's college basketball career in Sunday's championship game, ESPN said on Monday.

The sports network said audience figures for the game, which saw South Carolina take down Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, peaked at 24 million viewers.

The numbers made the game the most watched women's college basketball game in history, marking an 89% increase from 2023 and a staggering 285% leap from viewers for the 2022 final.

The final in Cleveland was the most-watched basketball game of any kind – men's or women's, college or professional – since 2019.

ESPN said in a statement only the Olympics and NFL had drawn bigger audiences for a sporting event since 2019.

Games involving Clark's Iowa team set a number of ratings records this season, with fans watching to see the talented three-point scoring phenomenon in her final season of college basketball.

The ratings bonanza also elevated the collegiate final into the same stratosphere as the 2022 soccer World Cup final.

Some 16.78 million US viewers tuned in to Fox's English-language broadcast two years ago to watch Lionel Messi's Argentina beat France in Qatar.

A further nine million watched a Spanish-language telecast of the game.