With only a few seconds remaining on the scoreboard, down 75-87 in one of the most anticipated games of this season, University of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark subbed out for the remainder of the game as the clock winded down to 0:00. An undefeated 33-0 University of South Carolina had won the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, but Clark still walked off the court with her numerous accolades and records accumulated across her four years at Iowa.

Caitlin Clark’s impact on women’s basketball has ushered in a new wave of viewers. The NCAA Women’s Championship averaged about 18.7 million viewers and peaked at an incredible 24 million viewers, the most in a NCAA women’s or men’s college basketball game. In contrast, the University of Connecticut and Purdue men’s final amassed a total of 14.82 million viewers.

What’s impressive about the viewership ratings is not the actual number itself, but rather the fact that the highly anticipated women’s NCAA final was the third consecutive record-setting night in viewership for women’s college basketball. University of Iowa broke previous viewership rating records in the Elite Eight LSU matchup and Final Four UConn matchup at 12.3 million and 16.1 million viewers, respectively. 

Clark’s 4-year journey has raised the bar for women’s college basketball and will likely foster a new generation of prolific scorers and athletes. After becoming the legendary “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s NCAA career points record (3,951 over 3,667), the list of records she has broken in such a short period of time goes on and on: points, three-pointers, Player of the Week, Player of the Tournament. And as the Indiana Fever now select Cailtin Clark as the unanimous 1st pick of the WNBA draft, she hopes to usher in a new wave of popularity in women’s professional basketball.