Study: Women’s World Cup interest up 57% on 2019
July 18, 2023
Ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia & New Zealand, research has revealed the extent to which interest in women’s football has grown in the four years since the 2019 tournament in France.
The worldwide study commissioned by WSC Sports – a provider of AI-driven sports content – surveyed over 14,000 people spanning five continents and seven countries competing in the 2023 Women’s World Cup. The research presents the latest insights into the evolving landscape of football interest and sports content consumption.
Women’s Football Fandom is on the Rise
The research highlights a positive trend in growth of following for the 2023 Women’s World Cup tournament. The tournament in Australia and New Zealand, which kicks-off on July 20th, is set to see a 57 per cent growth in avid followers when compared to the 2019 edition, equating to 543 million new fans engaging with the tournament.
Driving this growth and highlighting the ability of the tournament to connect with new audiences, four in ten (40 per cent) who will follow the tournament avidly identified themselves as casual sports followers, whilst comprising just 24 per cent of the total audience surveyed. Of the new followers identified, 52 per cent are female.
From the countries surveyed, awareness of the tournament peaks in England with 66 per cent of the population aware that the Lionesses will be aiming to win the World Cup for the first time, 10 per cent higher than the awareness levels in Australia, a co-host of the tournament. However, growth in fans following the tournament from 2019 to 2023 is highest Down Under with a 127 per cent increase.
Digital Eclipses TV for Gen Z
WSC Sports’ research reveals 30 per cent of the global audience will follow the tournament via YouTube. Streaming services and Facebook are jointly the third most popular method (17 per cent) followed by Google Search (14 per cent) and Instagram (13 per cent).
TikTok (8 per cent) has surpassed Twitter (7 per cent) in its popularity among all sports fans, this is heightened amongst Gen Z with more than a quarter (26 per cent) of 16-24-year-olds typically tapping the vertical video platform for sports content.
Building on the growing impact of short-format video for Gen Z, YouTube (43 per cent, versus 30 per cent all ages) and Instagram (31 per cent, versus 13 per cent overall) are now more popular ways for 16-24-year-olds to engage with sports than television (30 per cent). In addition, almost four in ten (38 per cent) young adults typically watch sports on a mobile device, compared to just 23 per cent across all age ranges.
Highlights and Non-Live Content Fuel Digital Growth
Underpinning the popularity of YouTube and general rise in digital viewership is the increasing interest in highlights and non-live content, especially amongst younger audiences. A striking 47 per cent of viewers are set to follow the Women’s World Cup via highlights, second only to those watching games live (59 per cent), whilst analysis/commentary (20 per cent), player-led content (18 per cent), features and documentaries (12 per cent) and behind-the-scenes (8 per cent) are expected to be the most consumed types of content during the tournament.
Interestingly, 16–24-year-olds displayed a higher-than-average preference for player-focused coverage (25 per cent, versus 17 per cent for all ages) and behind-the-scenes content (14 per cent, compared to 8 per cent universally).
“Our research shows conclusively the rate at which interest and awareness of women’s sport is growing globally. It also underlines the role of digital platforms and short-format content in driving a bigger audience for the Women’s World Cup,” said Daniel Shichman, CEO at WSC Sports.
Utilising advanced AI technologies, WSC Sports automates the creation and distribution of video content for over 350 teams, leagues, competitions and broadcasters across the globe, including the Women’s National Basketball Association and the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Shichman continued: “At WSC Sports we’ve seen video demand from our clients increase 66 per cent – with our AI-powered platform producing 3.5 million videos in the first half of 2023. Sports rights holders are starting to see that more digital content equals more engagement and bigger audiences. This is also true for women’s sport evidenced by the fact that engagement levels for our clients’ YouTube content has risen 35 per cent year-on-year. These figures mirror what this research is telling us about women’s sport: the more people watch, the more they want. Women’s sport has a growing and increasingly passionate audience – one that becomes more and more attractive to sponsors and investors, whose contributions can make a huge difference in accelerating the growth of women’s leagues, events, and competitions, globally.”