Best audience for a women’s soccer match on ESPN since May 2015
The UEFA Women’s European Championship 2022 final – a 2-1 England victory against Germany on Sunday from 12 – 2:30 p.m. ET – delivered an average audience of 971,000 viewers (P2+), making it the most-watched soccer match on ESPN networks in 2022. The audience peaked from 2:15-2:30 p.m. during the second half of overtime with 1.2 million viewers.
England-Germany, the match between two soccer rivals, beat the previous high: 732,000 average viewers on Sunday, June 5, who watched the Wales-Ukraine UEFA World Cup Qualifying Playoff Final on ESPN. The #WEURO2022 final is the most-watched women’s soccer match on ESPN networks since May 30, 2015, USA-South Korea match (998,000 viewers).
Top-10 markets: Norfolk (1.2), San Diego (1.0), Washington, DC (1.0), West Palm Beach (1.0), Austin, Texas (0.9), Miami (0.9), Buffalo (0.8), Raleigh-Durham (0.8), Las Vegas 0.8, and Richmond, Va. (0.7).
The 25-day competition capped an unprecedented summer of women’s sports across ESPN platforms, led by the critically-acclaimed “Fifty/50” content initiative.
Tournament Summary:
The 15 UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 group stage match windows on ESPN2 averaged 172,000 viewers, reflecting a 30 percent increase over the comparable time window (M-F 3-5pm; 132,000 viewers in June).
- Four quarterfinal matches delivered an average audience of 320,000 viewers, an 86 percent increase compared to the group stage average
- The semifinal matches averaged 326,000 viewers.
Top 5 #WEURO2022 matches:
| Date | Match | Viewers (P2+) |
| Sun, Jul 31 | England vs. Germany (Final) | 971,000 |
| Wed, Jul 20 | England vs. Spain (Quarterfinal) | 362,000 |
| Sat, Jul 23 | France vs. Netherlands (Quarterfinal) | 359,000 |
| Wed, Jul 27 | Germany vs. France (Semifinal) | 336,000 |
| Tue, Jul 26 | England vs. Sweden (Semifinal) | 315,000 |
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