Encouraging statistics surrounding the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand are starting to emerge.
Although the tournament is only about halfway complete, it is already breaking records. This includes both the attendance at the matches and on television screens worldwide.
Co-hosts both breaking Women’s World Cup attendance records
FIFA is reporting that, as of Friday, there has already been over 1.7 million tickets sold for 2023 Women’s World Cup games. This figure easily beats pre-tournament ticket sales projections. Both hosting countries have already set attendance records in the group stage of the competition.
New Zealand has twice broken a record crowd for soccer a match inside the country. This goes for both men’s and women’s soccer games. The United States women’s national team’s matchup with Portugal in Auckland eclipsed the record with 42,958 fans in the stands on August 1st.
Australia also saw impressive attendance marks as well. 75,784 fans watched the home team play the Republic of Ireland in the opening fixture of the tournament. This was a women’s soccer record for the country.
China records nearly 54 million viewers for match
The competition has also seen an increase in television viewers as well. China apparently produced the highest broadcasting audience for a single match in the history of the sport. The Asian nation recorded 53.9 million viewers during their team’s matchup with England in the group stage. This massive feat came even has England went on to beat China 6-1 in the game.
Australia’s final group stage fixture against Canada also attracted a huge audience. 4.71 million Australians looked on as their team thumped the North Americans 4-0. This was the most-watched program on the country’s channel seven during 2023. Nearly a third of New Zealand’s entire population has followed the action on television as well.
Along with tickets and broadcasting, digital platforms are also seeing a major influx of traffic. FIFA is claiming that 22 million unique users have visited their websites since the Women’s World Cup began. This number already surpasses the total amount of traffic throughout the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.
Photo credit: IMAGO / Sports Press Photo
