The FIFA Women’s World Cup Group B match between Canada and Ireland on July 26, accumulated an average of 551,000 views in Ireland, becoming the country’s most watched women’s team sport event in Irish Television history.
Although the game resulted in a 2-1 loss for Ireland and ended their World Cup run, captain Katie McCabe scored a phenomenal goal, which was Ireland’s first ever Women’s World Cup Goal. McCabe’s goal is also the first goal Women’s World Cup history to be scored directly from a corner kick. The record television views for the Irish National team’s games showed the progression of women’s sports in Ireland.
Brilliant to see that Ireland WNT vs Canada was the most watched women's team sport event in Irish TV history 🙌
An average of 551,000 viewers tuned into RTÉ2 for the #FWWC2023 game.#COYGIG | #WeAreOne pic.twitter.com/K9SCkonR6E
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) August 21, 2023
The Ireland vs Canada game was not the only media record being broken this world cup. The highly anticipated semi-final between Australia and England received a record breaking 11.15 million views in Australia, becoming the country’s most watched tv program.
The BBC reported they received 7.3 million viewers for the England vs Australia game on their main channel and an additional 3.8 million streams on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport digital platform.
The BBC also reported that their BBC iPlayer received 25.7 million streams over the course of the entire FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament, which was a 75% increase from the 2019 World Cup.