England’s Euro 2022 final with Germany was watched by an average of 11million people on TV, a record for a women’s football match in the UK.
The audience peaked at more than 17million in the closing minutes of the Lionesses’ 2-1 victory at Wembley, according to overnight figures released by the ratings organisation Barb.
This is also a record for a women’s football game.
The previous highest peak came during England’s 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat by the United States, which saw a peak audience of nearly 12million.
The average audience of 11.0million is for BBC One’s entire coverage of Sunday’s final, which ran for several hours during the afternoon and evening.
It is slightly behind the 11.2million average overnight ratings for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert, which was broadcast by BBC One in early June, and which remains the biggest TV audience of the year so far.
17.4 MILLION. 📺😍— Lionesses (@Lionesses) August 1, 2022
Ratings for Sunday’s match peaked at 7.32pm – the moment the final whistle blew – when the audience reached 17.6million, Barb said.
The average TV audience for the match itself, from kick-off to final whistle, was 13.6million, according to the BBC.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie said: “We are incredibly proud to have championed women’s football and are thrilled we were able to bring such a special sporting moment to the public.
11 million people watched the English Lionesses' victory in the Euro 2022 Final on BBC1 last night, peaking with 17.6m at 19:32 when the final whistle blew. #WEURO2022— BARB, Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (@BARBtelevision) August 1, 2022
“This was the most-watched women’s football game on UK television of all time and deservedly so.
“Everyone at the BBC is delighted at the win and being able to share that with the public.”
Separate figures from the BBC show that coverage of the game was streamed 5.9 million times across the iPlayer and BBC Sport website.
