Women’s sport reached record audiences this summer in the UK, with rising female viewership and viewing hours, according to a recent report.
The Women’s Sport Trust (WST) has released a report showing how female UK broadcast audiences reached an all-time high, making up 44 per cent of the UEFA Women’s Euros audience and 43 per cent of the Women’s Rugby World Cup (RWC) audience – the highest on record for both competitions.
Audience numbers for the Euros soared. The two most watched UK broadcast moments of the year, across all programming, were Lionesses matches – with the final against Spain drawing a peak audience of 16.22m and the semi-final against Italy reaching 9.88m.
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Leah Williamson held back tears as she relived England’s Euros win at the Lionesses’ champion parade
Just five events drove 82 per cent of the total viewing hours for women’s sport this year: the Euros, the Rugby World Cup, The Hundred, the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Nations League.
Coverage of these five events massively contributed to the 357m viewing hours of women’s sport.
The next best year was 2023, which featured the Women’s FIFA World Cup and had 18m fewer total hours than this year.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup final match between England and Canada at the Allianz Stadium attracted a record 81,885 spectators
Sky Sports’ coverage of women’s sport saw similar patterns, with Sky exclusive Hundred women’s match audiences increasing by 65 per cent from last year, while the average live audience for the AIG Open golf was up 18 per cent.
An increase in WSL games on Sky Sports has also come with a surge in viewing hours, with the first six game weeks of the 2025/26 season up 138 per cent in total compared to last year.
The Netball Super League saw growth of more than 300 per cent in viewing hours this year, even though the Grand Final clashed with mega sporting events such as the British Grand Prix, Wimbledon, and the Euros.
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London Pulse won their maiden Netball Super League Grand Final, defeating three-peat hopefuls Loughborough Lightning
Women’s sport has not just boomed on television, it has also made its mark on social media, with female athletes dominating the most watched content on many National Governing Bodies accounts.
So much so that during Wimbledon, Aryna Sabalenka featured in five of the 10 most watched Wimbledon TikToks between June and July.
Ilona Maher has 5.3million Instagram followers and has become a pillar of women’s rugby
Rugby sensation Ilona Maher, who has nearly three times as many Instagram followers as World Rugby, also challenged how social media is utilised for female sports fans with her style of content: 78 per cent of her followers identify as female, compared to just 26 per cent of the Rugby World Cup’s followers.
World Champions, the Red Roses, also saw an incredible 621 per cent increase in video views this year compared to last.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
