The 2019 Women’s World Cup has become the UK’s most viewed women’s football tournament on TV.
The event has achieved a combined TV reach of 17.2 million people, beating the 12.4 million total set at the same stage of the 2015 tournament.
England’s matches have seen 6.1 million people watch the win over Scotland, 5.4 million view the win over Argentina and 4.7 million take in the win over Japan.
Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said figures are “extremely pleasing”.
England’s win over Scotland is the most-watched women’s football game ever shown on UK TV, with the 6.1 million viewing on television joined by a further 494,000 people watching online.
Slater added: “The interest in the Women’s World Cup so far has been incredible and viewers haven’t been short of daily entertainment as our teams have been working hard to deliver the best tournament to date to the millions that have followed the group stages.
“To set two new records – 17.2 million current total reach and 6.1 million for England v Scotland – in the opening weeks is extremely pleasing.”
Television reach is measured by counting individuals who have watched at least 15 minutes continuous action from the tournament in France.
Since the start of the tournament, the BBC Sport website has received a total of 9.4 million unique visitors to the Women’s World Cup section of the site.
The knockout phase of the tournament begins on Saturday with Germany facing Nigeria at 16:30 BST and Norway taking on Australia at 20:30 BST.
Both games will be available on BBC Two and the action will continue on Sunday with Phil Neville’s England side taking on Cameroon.
| Most-watched matches (millions) | |
|---|---|
| England 2-1 Scotland | 6.1 |
| England 1-0 Argentina | 5.4 |
| Japan 0-2 England | 4.7 |
| France 4-0 S Korea | 2.2 |
| USA 3-0 Chile | 2.0 |
Full last-16 schedule
Saturday, June 22
Germany v Nigeria (16:30 BST, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)
Norway v Australia (20:00 BST, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)
Sunday, June 23
England v Cameroon (16:30 BST, BBC One, BBC iPlayer and online)
France v Brazil (20:00 BST, TBC)
Monday, June 24
Spain v USA (17:00 BST, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)
Sweden v Canada (20:00 BST, TBC)
Tuesday, June 25
Italy v China (17:00 BST, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online)
Netherlands v Japan (20:00 BST, TBC)
