Women’s World Cup cements streaming success
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 24 August 2023
Research from video data and insight firm NPAW has revealed that just as the tournament became a hit for traditional broadcasters, the Women's World Cup (WWC) 2023 was a success story not only for women's football/soccer but also for streaming adoption.
FIFA womens world cup 14June2023
NPAW’s analysis into the tournament found that compared with the average of the 90 days prior to the tournament’s start, total plays and playtime surged by 20% during game days.

This spike underscores the interest in the WWC and its potential to boost streaming engagement compared to regular seasonal content. Additionally, the average playtime per user saw an increase of 32%, accompanied by a subtle but noteworthy 5% boost in unique users. Daily playtime for the average user during the tournament neared 59.7 minutes — an average of one hour of football viewing per day.

Though the total number of plays for the Men’s World Cup of 2022 still far outnumbers this year’s Women’s edition, NPAW added that the WWC final saw an impressive 202% increase in plays compared with other games – a statistic that far outstripped the Men’s WC, where the final saw a 40% increase in comparison to other games. The analyst said this major spike underscored the growing interest in women’s football, which culminated in the massively watched final duel between La Roja and the Lionesses.

In terms of the devices used by viewers to stream the WWC, NPAW said this mirrored past sports events, with the majority preferring a traditional, big-screen viewing experience. Set-top boxes and TVs combined accounted for 75.2% of total playtime. Albeit far behind, smartphones and PCs, together accounted for a still substantial 22.4%. This said NPAW suggested that these platforms served as alternatives for fans on the go or when a TV was not available. Tablets and consoles captured only a marginal share of the total playtime.

Overall, NPAW stressed that what these insights tell us is unequivocal – women’s football is gaining attention and momentum like never before.