YouGov tracking shows growing global interest in women’s sport

September 15, 2023

James Croll

The growth in interest for women’s sporting events has been confirmed by data and market research company YouGov.

Following on from record attendances at the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup and a claimed women’s sporting attendance record of 92,003 fans on 31^st August at Nebraska's Memorial Stadium in the USA for a NCAA Division I volleyball match, YouGov’s global tracking data bears out that these attendance milestones indeed reflect a structural growth in the appetite for women’s sport overall, not limited to only some special occasions.

From November 2020, when YouGov first started tracking this datapoint, until June 2023, the share of consumers who say they have watched women’s sport in the last month has risen from 21% to 28%.

Barring the exceptional spike in viewership associated with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in July and August 2021), women’s sport has experienced steady gains throughout this period.

Looking into the findings, Rishad D'Souza, YouGov's B2B Content Writer, explains “this uptick hasn’t come at the expense of men’s sport either. During the same period, men’s sport viewership rates have stayed somewhat steady, from 43% to 46%.

“It’s important to consider the role COVID-19 lock downs may have played in causing lower viewership figures earlier in the time period. Even so, the relative increase in women’s sport viewership rates compared to men’s paints a telling story.”

D'Souza notes that a good part of this growth has seemingly been driven by women. In November 2020, only 17% of women watched women’s sport - a share that rose to 25% as of July 2023.

Meanwhile men continue to engage in slightly greater proportions with women’s sport, as seen in the chart below.

As the chart shows, the following for women’s sport isn’t distributed evenly across markets though. For example, Indonesians, who top the charts, are over three times as likely as consumers in the USA, Germany and Singapore to have watched/followed women’s sport.

In each of Mexico (39%), India (36%), China (34%), UAE (33%), Spain (32%) and Sweden (31%), at least three in 10 consumers report having watched women’s sport in the past month.

Meanwhile, at least a quarter of consumers in Poland (26%), Italy (27%), Denmark (28%) and Australia (29%) indicate the same. Although at the bottom half of the list, rates are still fairly substantial in Britain, Canada, France and Hong Kong with about a fifth of consumers saying they followed women’s sport in the past month.

D'Souza adds “these trends in women's sports viewership and attendance records suggest a positive shift towards greater recognition and appreciation of women's sports on a global scale.”

YouGov surveys provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets.

Main image: FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup crowd at Sydney's Accor Stadium.

About the author

James Croll

With a background in adventure tourism, events management and marketing, James Croll is a regular contributor to Australasian Leisure Management and Asian Leisure Business.

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