The game between the South Carolina and LSU women’s basketball teams became the most-watched women’s basketball game of the 2025-26 season. South Carolina’s Valentine’s Day win over LSU averaged 1.7 million viewers on ABC, as per ESPN. This marked a big TV ratings win for the first regular-season women’s college basketball game in the network’s Saturday primetime window.
The game peaked at 2.2 million viewers and became ESPN’s fourth-most-watched women’s basketball regular-season game on record. The Gamecocks have now played in two of the most-watched games of the year so far, which is a sign of how their game is pure addictive hoops.
ESPN’s special edition of College GameDay on Saturday, airing primetime hoops, averaged 1.2 million viewers to become the most-watched episode of women’s GameDay ever. This game now tops the previous record set on February 8 when the Gamecocks won against Tennessee, averaging 1.46 million viewers on ABC.
February has been a good month for hoops broadcasts so far, with four games averaging more than 1 million viewers in the last three weeks. February 1 saw two games hitting the 1 million average viewers mark, with UConn’s win over Tennessee getting 1.2 million viewers on Fox and Texas’ victory over Oklahoma averaging 1.10 million viewers on ABC that same day.
So far, five women’s basketball games have hit the 1 million mark. The first game to reach 1 million viewers this season was the CyHawk rivalry game between Iowa and Iowa State on December 10 in the Jimmy V Classic. This remains the most-watched game to air on ESPN this year.
Women’s college basketball ratings have only been going up so far. This Valentine’s Day, viewership was up 33% Y-o-Y across the family of networks, which now has more games airing on ABC.
How Did South Carolina Perform Against LSU?
South Carolina’s win over LSU could have been easily avoided by the Tigers. At first, LSU took a lead after the first quarter, but the Gamecocks rallied to go up 41-40 at halftime. The game felt going inch by inch through the final two quarters, ending in a 79-72 Gamecocks victory, taking them to a 25-2 record this season.
South Carolina was led by Tessa Johnson and Raven Johnson in scoring, adding 21 and 19 points to the scoreboard, respectively. Madina Okot also contributed by adding a game-high 17 boards and 12 points to the score sheet. For LSU, Flau’jae Johnson added 21 points and eight rebounds while Mikaylah Williams had 11 points.
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