Caitlin Clark outshines Jayson Tatum vs Steph Curry as Iowa star's final regular season game beats NBA marquee matchup in viewership: Reports

Caitlin Clark broke the college basketball scoring record on Sunday in the Iowa Hawkeyes' game against Ohio State. The Iowa prodigy had a 35-point performance against the Buckeyes that saw her break Pete Maravich's scoring record, which stood for 54 years.

However, that wasn't the only record Caitlin Clark broke in what was her final regular season game in college basketball. With the desire to see Clark break Maravich's record, the game recorded the largest television audience for a regular season women's game this century.

The Hawkeyes' game against the Buckeyes averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.39 million viewers on FOX. This marks the most viewers in a women's game on any network since the 1999 matchup between UConn and Tennessee. The game notably peaked at 4.42 million from around 3 PM ET until the end.

Where Caitlin Clark’s Iowa rank on TV for the weekend

Iowa's victory over Ohio State on FOX emerged as the most-watched basketball game of the weekend in the United States, irrespective of stage or gender. It surpassed an NBA doubleheader on ABC that featured the Golden State Warriors against the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics secured an emphatic 52-point victory over the Warriors on Sunday at the TD Garden with an average viewership of 3.01 million. It’s noteworthy that Clark was able to command more TV audience than a game that featured Steve Curry and Jayson Tatum.

The Sunday game also ranked second to the NASCAR Cup Series in Las Vegas as the most-watched sporting event across all networks during the weekend. The racing event averaged a 2.4 rating and 4.36 million viewers. This shows how big the Caitlin Clark brand has become across the country.

Is Caitlin Clark returning to Iowa next season?

Caitlin Clark recently announced that she will forego her remaining year of eligibility brought about by COVID-19 and enter the upcoming WNBA draft. She is widely projected as the first-overall pick at the event; a draft slot that belongs to the Indiana Fever.

Clark is expected to bring more attention to the WNBA, which hasn't recorded much growth in recent years. With the amount of popularity she's built in college basketball, she is expected to bring the television numbers at Iowa to the professional stage.

The last WNBA game with such a large audience as the Iowa-Ohio State game was during the opening weekend of play in 1997. The matchup between the defunct Charlotte Sting and Phoenix Mercury on the second day of play averaged 3.59 million viewers on NBC.