The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is set to kick off this Thursday (July 21) in New Zealand and Australia. Over the past few years, women’s soccer has experienced significant growth in popularity and infrastructure thanks to the combined effort of players, federations, clubs and leagues.
The upcoming Women’s World Cup is expected to be one of the most thrilling tournaments to date, as there is greater parity between teams and a surge of interest from fans worldwide. Powerhouse nations like England, Netherlands, France, and Spain pose significant threats to challenge the reigning champions, the US Women’s National Team.
Of course, after the success of the WWC in France 2019, FIFA expect better numbers, especially after several records in attendance and viewership have been broken in important competitions such as the Women’s Champions League. So, how is the viewership of the tournament compared to Men’s World Cup? Check out the numbers.
Women’s World Cup and Men’s World Cup viewership comparison
According to the official statistics by FIFA, the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France had record numbers of audience with 1.12 billion viewers who watched coverage of the tournament on TV at home, on digital platforms or out-of-home.
From that number, 993.5 million watched on TV alone and 481.5 million accessed coverage on digital platforms. Also, the final between the USA and Netherlands was seen live by 260 million viewers, average live match audience more than doubled from the 2015 edition.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the Men’s World Cup, the viewership is still much higher. The 2022 Qatar final between Argentina and France was viewed by 1.5 billion people alone. According to FIFA, around 5 billion people “engaged” with the tournament, following it “across an array of platforms and devices across the media universe.”