The FIFA Women’s World Cup set a new match attendance record even before the quarter-finals

The ninth FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand became the biggest ever after 27,706 fans packed Melbourne Stadium on Sunday to watch Sweden beat defending champions USA on penalties. Thus, the total number of viewers of the tournament reached 1,367,037.

The previous record was 1,353,506 at the 24-team World Cup in Canada in 2015. The last FIFA Women’s World Cup in France four years ago attracted 1,131,312 fans across 52 matches with an average attendance of 21,756 per match.

The average attendance so far this year is 26,289 for the 52 matches played to date, a figure which is likely to rise with sell-out stadiums for the last 12 matches of the tournament. The highest average attendance at a Women’s World Cup was 37,218 in China in 2007, where 16 teams played 32 matches – half the number in Australia and New Zealand.

The biggest crowd of the tournament so far was 75,784 at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney for the opening match of the World Cup, in which the hosts played versus Ireland. A minimum crowd of 6,992 was at Dunedin Stadium in New Zealand for Japan’s opening 2-0 win over Costa Rica on July 26. The tournament has already set a record for ticket sales at a FIFA Women’s World Cup. As of last Friday, 1,715,000 tickets had been sold, surpassing the original target of 1.3 million.