Women’s World Cup a hit with crowds, TV audiences

A sell-out final and more bumper TV ratings have capped the biggest and most successful Women’s World Cup to date.

The tournament fell just short of two million attendees and, helped by the Matildas’ golden run to the semi-final, captivated Australia.

Another full house of 75,784 for the Spain-England final at Stadium Australia topped it off, bringing the end tally to 1,978,274 – and average crowds for the tournament to 30,911.

The total attendees exceeded FIFA’s initial targets and projections by more than 500,000.

Sunday night’s final reached 5.54 million people via broadcaster Channel Seven alone and had an average audience of 3.08 million.

The broadcaster confirmed 18.6 million people watched the tournament across their platforms.

The Matildas’ semi-final loss to England last Wednesday broke new ground.

The match was the most-watched TV program in more than two decades, with an average audience of 7.2 million and a reach of 11.15 million – which didn’t include viewers on partner Optus Sport.

Seven confirmed it was also the most streamed event in Australian history, with 957,000 viewers on 7plus.

The decision to expand the competition from 24 to 32 teams proved a raging success.

Spain and England were first-time finalists while Australia reached the last four for the first time.

Colombia’s run to the quarter-finals was one of the stories of the tournament, while Morocco broke new ground, becoming the first Arab and majority-Muslim nation to qualify for the finals, then reaching the knockout stage.

Traditional heavyweights Germany, Norway and the USA, who have won seven of the eight World Cup titles between them, failed to progress past the round of 16.

There were also far fewer of the thrashings that have marred previous Women’s World Cups, with debutants like Morocco and Haiti impressing on the big stage.

There were 164 goals scored across the expanded tournament, surpassing the previous highest of 146 recorded at Canada 2015 and France 2019.

The World Cup also delivered financially.

Last week, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the tournament had brought in more than $US570 million ($A887 million) in revenue, breaking even for the first time.

“This World Cup generated over $US570m in revenues, and so we broke even,” he said at the FIFA Women’s Football Convention in Sydney on Friday.

“We didn’t lose any money and we generated the second-highest income of any sport, besides of course the men’s World Cup, at a global stage.”