The final of handball’s 2026 men’s EHF European Championship drew huge audiences on free-to-air broadcasters in several markets in the region as Denmark secured their third title.
In Germany, public broadcaster ZDF reported an audience of 12.82 million and a market share of 50.8% for the final, in which the national team lost 34-27 to Denmark last Sunday (February 1).
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On the European level, these are the best ratings for handball in Germany since the 2016 EHF Euro, when 12.98 million had tuned in for Germany’s victory against Spain at the championship in Poland.
In Denmark, more than 2 million viewers watched the end of the final on TV2, which had an average audience of 1.77 million and a market share of approximately 85% as the country secured the gold medal –
Friday’s semi-final, which saw Denmark beat Iceland in Herning, had a peak viewership of more than 2 million.
For the bronze medal match, 1.2 million tuned in from Croatia on broadcaster RTL, as the country defeated Iceland 34-33 to make it to the podium.
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By GlobalDataThe match achieved a market share of 60% among the key target group of people aged between 18 and 59.
Meanwhile, in Iceland, several viewership records were broken. For the semi-final against Denmark, public broadcaster RÚV had an average viewership of 66.4% across the country – the most ever for any sporting event broadcast on the island.
The previous record was held by the soccer match between Iceland and Argentina (62.4%) at the 2018 World Cup.
That World Cup match has now been relegated to fourth place as Iceland’s bronze medal game against Croatia (63.1%) and the country’s earlier match against Slovenia (62.5%) recorded higher viewership figures at the EHF Euro.
Live coverage of the biennial tournament was secured by the Infront agency, the EHF’s media and marketing partner, across more than 70 territories, with a significant free-to-air offering.
Across the 24 participating teams, matches were shown by several major broadcasters, including Viaplay (Sweden, Norway, Finland), TV2 Denmark, ORF (Austria), ARD & ZDF (Germany), France Télévisions/BeIN (France), TVE (Spain), RTP (Portugal), Eurosport/ TVP (Poland), Arena Sport (Balkans), SRG (Switzerland), and RÚV (Iceland). Global live access was secured via EHFTV.com.
The men’s EHF Euro took place between January 15 and February 1 and was co-hosted by Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
Martin Hausleitner, EHF secretary general: “These figures are absolutely spectacular and underline the growing appeal of our sport. An EHF Euro that is followed by millions is the perfect base to foster further growth and development of handball in Europe.”
Jens Mennigmann, co-head of media at Infront, added: “These audiences underline the enduring strength of handball on broadcast. Working with the EHF and leading broadcasters across Europe, our focus was on building a distribution model that delivers both scale and relevance. These results speak for themselves.”
