The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, held from June 7 to July 7 in France, was watched by 1.12 billion viewers across all platforms.
According to world football governing body, FIFA, linear TV accounted for the majority of the global audience.
It said 993.5 million viewers, watching at least one minute of coverage on a TV set at home.
This was an increase of 30 per cent on the audience for the 2015 edition, held in Canada, which reached 764.0 million.
An estimated 481.5 million people accessed coverage of France 2019 on digital platforms, equivalent to 43 per cent of the total audience reach.
The digital audience, which overlaps with the linear TV audience, was up considerably on the estimated 86.0 million in 2015.
The final match between the U.S and the Netherlands was the most watched FIFA Women’s World Cup match ever.
It had an average live audience of 82.18 million, up by 56 per cent on the 2015 final audience of 52.56 million.
This reached a total of 263.62 million unique viewers (one-minute reach), which accounted for 22.9 per cent of the overall tournament reach.
Over the 52 matches played in nine host cities across France and broadcast in 205 territories around the world, the average live match audience was 17.27 million viewers.
This is more than double the 8.39 million average of Canada 2015 and this can be attributed to the greater distribution of matches on higher profile broadcasters in many countries.
With the distribution of matches, many participating teams’ matches drew record audiences in their home territories, such as Brazil, France, Italy and the UK.
“More than a sporting event, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 was a cultural phenomenon attracting more media attention than ever before and providing a platform for women’s football to flourish in the spotlight.
”The fact that we broke the 1 billion target just shows the pulling power of the women’s game and the fact that, if we promote and broadcast world-class football widely, whether it’s played by men or women, the fans will always want to watch,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino. (NAN)
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