Friday night's Iowa-UConn matchup averaged a 7.1 rating with 14.2 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2.

The viewership represents the largest audience for a NCAA women's basketball game ever recorded by Nielsen. 

The game was also ESPN's most-viewed basketball game ever. 

It was the third most-watched basketball game in the last two years, behind last Sunday's NC-State-Duke matchup and last year's UConn-San Diego State title game. It was also the tenth most-watched basketball game ever on cable. 

South Carolina's win over NC State earlier in the night delivered 3.7 rating with 7.1 million average viewers.