New study into habits in women’s sport shows attendance and record viewership for 2022 | Football News

UK Sport, FA, ECB, RFU supported Two Circles & Women’s Sport Trust in producing new report on women’s sport’s growing fan base; Fans want to see more women’s sports but currently have less set habits; Visitor numbers surpassed the two million mark for the first time, setting a new record

A new study of women’s sport habits has revealed attendance and attendance records were set in 2022, when more than two million people attended women’s sport for the first time.

In addition to attendance, more people watched women’s sport for more than two hours in 2022 than ever before.

A total of 574,875 tickets were sold during last year’s European Football Championship, while the competition attracted a record worldwide audience of more than 365 million people, with the final, with 87,000 spectators at Wembley breaking the all-time record for a men’s or women’s final at Wembley Stadium for England’s victory over Germany.

Over two million viewers tuned in to Claressa Shields vs. Savannah Marshall, making it the most-watched professional women’s boxing show in history, while the rival world champions also drew crowds at The O2, another standout event in 2022.

The study was started by two circles and the women sport trust, Providing new research on women’s sport fandom and has been supported by UK Sport, The FA, The ECB and The RFU.

The study also found that fans want to see more women’s sports, but that habits are currently less established. It also showed that women’s sport is becoming mainstream and the amount and depth of consumption is increasing rapidly.

“We found that the next frontier to address is habitual consumption of sport, which was the focus of this study, as this will unlock a range of revenue streams that will ultimately help make women’s sport sustainable and profitable said Tammy Parlor, CEO of the Women’s Sport Trust.

“This study shows that there is a huge opportunity for rights holders, media and sponsors to capitalize on this interest in women’s sport.

“The next step for the industry is to find ways to engage fans to create a more meaningful, long-term connection with women’s sport across many different sports, so the fantastic growth we’ve seen so far doesn’t stall.”

As revealed in the 2021 study Closing the Visibility Gap by Women’s Sport Trust and Two Circles, revenue from women’s sport in the UK is still expected to reach £1bn by 2030.

Clare Vigers, Client Services Director at Two Circles added: “Nothing beats a live event. They’re consistently the best and most effective drivers of engagement in esports at the top of the fandom funnel, but for women’s esports to grow sustainably in the long term, we need to turn those breakthrough moments into habits, resulting in larger, consistently more engaged audiences .

“Based on our findings, it is clear that this live engagement with fans is key to creating positive habitual behaviors. Presence is the foundation of habit.

“The size of the potential prize remains important to women’s sport in the UK. And to get us there, the study shows the importance of time, place, emotional state, and other people in habitual behavior.

“Consistency is really important when it comes to habit building – from planning and messaging to building the excitement. And there’s still a lot of excitement to come.”