The FIFA Women’s World Cup broke another television viewing figures record as the final saw a record peak of 14.46 million people watch the match in the United Kingdom.
The number from broadcasters BBC and ITV was the largest recorded for women’s football in the country, as European champions England lost 1-0 to Spain at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
BBC’s coverage drew in 12 million viewers to dwarf ITV’s 2.46 million.
It topped viewing figures for this year’s men’s singles Wimbledon final, between 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia and eventual winner Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, which attracted 11.3 million viewers.
The World Cup final was also viewed a total of 3.9 million times on the BBC’s online platforms.
“We’re proud to be long-term partners for women’s football which continues its fantastic upward trajectory,” said BBC Sport director Barbara Slater.
“The Lionesses came so close but they should be incredibly proud of reaching a World Cup final.
“It was a brilliant tournament for audiences and these figures prove once again that no one can bring the nation together for the big moments quite like the BBC across TV, iPlayer, Sounds and the Sport website.”
The final was only bested in terms of viewing figures by one event this year as 18 million watched the Coronation of King Charles III in May.
In Spain, an average of 5.6 million people tuned in for at least one minute of the game which represented 65.7 per cent of television viewers in the country on that day.
It was the country’s first Women’s World Cup trophy win and the highest ever audience recorded for the tournament in Spain.
Viewing figures peaked during the 13 minutes of additional time at the end of the match at 7.38 million.
The tournament has consistently produced record numbers, as in Australia a total of 11.15 million watched the co-hosts in their semi-final defeat to England.
It was the second time in less than a week that records were broken in the country of more than 25 million people.
Australia’s win over France in the quarter-finals had a peak audience of 7.2 million on Channel Seven.
Prior to the beginning of the tournament, FIFA’s chief women’s football officer Sarai Brennan expected that it would reach an audience of more than two billion viewers which would easily surpass the previous record of 1.12 billion set at the 2019 edition.
