After the 48 matches of the group stage, the 2023 Women’s World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand, attracted 1.222 million spectators. This already surpasses the entire 2019 edition in France, which had gathered 1.1 million spectators.
Among these 1.222 million spectators who attended the matches, there was an average attendance of over 25,000 people per stadium. This represents a 29% growth compared to the same stage of the competition during the 2019 World Cup in France. In 2019, approximately 1.1 million fans had attended the matches live throughout the tournament, but at that time there were fewer teams (24 versus 32) and therefore fewer matches (52 versus 64).
Several matches experienced exceptional attendance, notably the first match of Australia in Sydney against Ireland, which attracted over 75,000 spectators, filling the stadium to capacity. “I am confident that by the time we reach the final, more than 1.9 million fans will have passed through the turnstiles,” FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer Sarai Bareman explained to AFP. “The tournament has been amazing so far, and we have exceeded our expectations in many ways.”
However, some other matches, mainly in New Zealand, recorded lower attendance. “But we need to look at this in perspective. New Zealand is a rugby country. We needed to convert as many people as possible from rugby to football, and we have seen that,” Sarai Bareman explained. “We had a Portugal-United States match at Eden Park with a full house, even though the national team wasn’t even playing.”
FIFA also expressed satisfaction with some viewership numbers: “We have broken records almost daily. In Colombia, for example, the ratings surpassed those of the men’s World Cup,” Sarai Bareman stated.
