NCAA women's basketball final gets 4million MORE viewers than the men and UConn's win over Purdue - as Caitlin Clark and Iowa's loss proves more popular with 18.9m fans tuning in

For the first time, the NCAA women's basketball championship game had a larger viewership than the men's final, with South Carolina-Iowa outdrawing UConn-Purdue by over 4million people. 

The Gamecocks victory over the Hawkeyes had an average viewership 18.9million, while the Huskies drubbing of the Boilermakers only mustered 14.8million people tuning in. 

The women's final aired on a major network, ABC, while the men's final was on cable network TBS. 

Purdue-UConn started at 9:20 p.m. Eastern time, while the Iowa-South Carolina began at 3 p.m. and was finished by 5:30 p.m., compared to the men's final nearly trickling into Tuesday. 

Interest to see Caitlin Clark's final college game skyrocketed interest, as Sunday's championship was the most viewed game in women's college basketball history.  

The men's final did have two No 1 seeds and popular programs participating in the final. 

Purdue's Zach Edey is one of the biggest names in college basketball, giving the game individual star power as well. 

Yet, the men's championship game drew 4.1million less average viewers than South Carolina and Iowa. 

The record for the most-watched college women's basketball game has been broken three times over the last 12 months. 

First, the LSU-Iowa final last year was viewed by 9.9million, then the rematch in this year's Elite Eight drew 12.3million.

South Carolina-Iowa set a new standard with just shy of 19million.