ZURICH — FIFA research says the Women’s World Cup final drew an average audience of 82.18 million in-home viewers — 56% more than the 2015 final.
FIFA says the United States’ 2-0 win over the Netherlands in Lyon, France, reached 263.62 million viewers for at least one minute of action.
The total audience reached for the tournament was 993.5 million people. It was estimated at 1.12 billion with digital media audiences included.
Global average in-home audience is the gold standard of verified viewers for a full broadcast. It was 15.29 million in the United States and 5.48 million in the Netherlands.
FIFA research says a bigger audience than the 2015 final — a 5-2 win for the Americans over Japan in Vancouver, Canada — could have been more but for the time zone being less favourable for American viewers, and the Dutch market being smaller than Japan.
FIFA says the 1.12 billion people watching at least one minute of the 52-game tournament included 342 million in China.
By The Associated Press