The final of the 2025 UEFA Women’s Euros had strong viewership repercussions not just in Europe, but abroad too, having secured a strong broadcast audience in the US.
US media giant Fox, which broadcast the tournament, revealed that the showpiece final (which saw England triumph over Spain after a penalty shoot-out) drew an audience of 1.35 million, peaking with a figure of 1.92 million viewers, making it the most-watched women’s soccer fixture in US history.
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Viewership of the final grew 53% from the 885,000 that tuned in for England’s win in the 2022 edition, which was broadcast on Disney-owned pay-TV sports heavyweight ESPN.
This capped off a bumper tournament for Fox, with viewership across all broadcast fixtures up almost 100% on the 2022 edition, averaging 458,000 per game compared to 233,000 in the previous edition.
In total, it was the most-watched edition of the women’s Euros in English-language broadcast history in the US, with he group stage, quarter final, semi-final, and final all far outpacing previous records for the respective stages (the semi-finals in particular grew 176% on the 2022 edition).
Fox has invested heavily into soccer rights across both men’s and women’s compeittions in recent years, and this viewership record, coupled with the recent Gold Cup success, in effect vindicates the media giant’s strategy, and pre-empts further success down the line should viewers maintain an interest in US women’s soccer (Fox also holds rights to the UEFA Women’s Champions League club competition).
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By GlobalDataWhile benefiting Fox in the short term, this bodes well for OTT streaming giant Netflix in the long run.
In the US, Netflix holds exclusive rights to the upcoming 2027 and 2031 editions of the elite FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) in a major tie-up reflecting the platform's continued slow but steady move into live sports.
If the brand is to make this move into live sports stick, it will need to capitalize on the fervour for the women’s Euros to drive growth for its own suite of rights.
One area it will benefit from is the more global nature of the WWC, making games easier to watch.
Indeed, the 2027 edition of the WWC will take place in Brazil from June 24 through July 25 of that year, with the time difference between that country and the US being far more amenable than that between the US and much of Europe.
The 2031
Even more beneficial is the fact that the US and Mexico, two of the joint hosts of the men’s 2026 World Cup, are the sole “valid bidder” for the 2031 World Cup hosting rights, according to FIFA.
May 2024 saw the news that the 2031 edition will feature 48 teams, a 50% increase from the current number of 32.
