Saturday’s Women’s Rugby World Cup final made history as the most-watched women’s rugby union match ever shown on UK television.
It also broke records as the most-watched rugby match of 2025 so far.
A peak audience of 5.8m viewers across TV and streaming tuned into the BBC’s coverage of England’s triumph over Canada, with the Red Roses sweeping aside their opponents 33-13.
A sold-out crowd of 81,855 watched on at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham as John Mitchell’s side overcame the ghosts of two successive World Cup final defeats to crown a dominant few years, winning their 33rd consecutive match.
The tournament as a whole reached 12m TV viewers in total, with 10.5m of those tuning in on streaming platform BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport.
Hopes are high that this World Cup will mark a turning point in the history of the sport.
“When they told us three years ago that the aim was to sell out Twickenham, we all laughed in the meeting. For it to be pulled off, and get that many people was amazing,” hooker Amy Cokayne said after the Red Roses’ triumph.
Wing Abby Dow said: “Normally the crowd is at eye level, but suddenly you look up and the whole of Twickenham Stadium just has people coming down the spiral staircases. I was struggling to breathe at one point because I couldn’t believe what was happening to us.
“This is women’s rugby and it is here to stay. We, as a team, have worked so hard but everyone else has worked so hard – all the volunteers, all the people that go behind the scenes brought that as well. Fine, we have the platform to perform, but it comes from every person challenging what is and what could be. The most important thing is realising not that we’ve won a medal, but we’ve won for women’s sport and women’s rugby. It’s here to stay and it’s such a privilege for me to be part of it.”
[SRC] https://www.inkl.com/news/england-s-women-s-rugby-world-cup-triumph-smashes-tv-viewing-records
