Women's Euro 2022: The numbers that prove tournament was a huge success
UEFA have calculated that the total cumulative live viewership for Women’s Euro 2022 around the world this summer was an incredible 365 million.
The sum of all 31 games throughout the tournament, that enormous figure accounts for people watching at home on TV, as well those who watched in public spaces and also online streams.
It was a 105% rise on the same statistic for Euro 2017 and 214% up on Euro 2013 viewership.
The England vs Germany final alone commanded 50 million viewers globally, more than three times the 15 million that tuned in for the Euro 2017 final. In both England and Germany specifically, it was the largest ever audience for a Women’s Euro match and the largest audiences for any football match since the Men’s Euro 2020 tournament last summer.
Total Euro 2022 attendance exceeded 574,000, a huge new tournament record well over double the previous record of 240,000 set at Euro 2017. Fan parties across the nine host cities were attended by 217,000 people and 19,200 took part in iconic ‘Fan Walks’ to the stadiums for matches.
Women’s Euro attendance records were broken throughout the competition. The final at Wembley drew a crowd of 87,192, which was not only a Women’s Euro record, breaking the 68,871 mark set in the opening game at Old Trafford, but a new all-time European Championship record – it easily surpassed the previous record of 79,115 that had been set way back in the 1964 men’s final.
The Women’s Euro record for average attendance per game also doubled to 18,544. The previous record of 9,000 had stood since 1989.
The presence of major women’s international was also a major draw to the host cities. Sheffield saw a massive 22% increase in footfall on the day that Sweden played Netherlands at Bramall Lane, compared to the same day a week earlier.
On social media, Women’s Euro 2022 generated 453 million cumulative interactions, with Twitter and TikTok the most popular platforms.
UEFA gained 590,000 new followers across it women’s football social media accounts – follower tallies on UEFA accounts on Instagram and TikTok in particular doubled. For comparison, the same accounts on all platforms gained 47,000 new followers during Euro 2017.
On TikTok alone, #WEUROS2022 has accumulated more than one billion views.
The legacy within England is also clear to see. The FA launched UEFA-supported programmes to get more girls and women involved in football a year prior to the final. In 12 months, those programmes have seen 7,900 girls and women newly registered with clubs and 14,600 starting to play recreationally. So far, 416,000 new opportunities to for girls and women to play have been created, with plans on track to get 120,000 more girls playing football in school by 2024.
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- Euro 2022 sets new all-time European Championship final attendance record
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