Lionesses set BBC record as 17.4 million tune in to witness Euro 2022 final

The BBC have confirmed a peak audience of 17.4million watched England’s Lionesses success over Germany in the European Championship final alongside an additional 5.9m on streaming services.

The Lionesses defeated Germany in extra-time to win their first Euros at a jubilant, sold-out Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening. It was the side’s first ever major trophy and its TV audience reflected the booming interest in women’s football both in the UK and further afield. The BBC figures do not include those who watched the final using the in public spaces such as pubs or fanzones.

The TV audience was even higher in Germany, where an average of 17.9million viewers watched the showpiece event. That is around 5.7 million more than watched their nation’s semi-final victory against France on Wednesday, as confirmed by German media.

The figures almost doubled the numbers that tuned in to watch England’s semi-final victory over Sweden on Tuesday – a match which attracted a peak audience of 9.3million viewers on the BBC. That was already among the most-watched television broadcasts of the year.

Sunday’s figures show the huge popularity of women’s football and for football that is broadcast on terrestrial TV. It eclipsed figures from last year’s Premier League matches broadcast on Sky Sports, with a 3.65million average tuning in to watch Liverpool’s five-goal victory over Manchester United on the subscription broadcaster last October – the highest of the campaign.

Compared to other sporting events, the BBC’s live coverage of the world athletics championships peaked at 1.3 million last month, while July’s Twenty20 international cricket match between India and England attracted a peak audience of 980,000, despite being on BBC Two.

In Germany, the TV market share for the total audience was a stunning 64.8 percent, with the numbers at their highest among the age bracket of 14 to 49 year olds – with 71 percent of that portion of the population choosing the final to watch.

In Germany, the figures which watched Sunday’s final was comparable to last summer’s men’s European Championships final between England and Italy – which was watched by a total of 20.9million viewers. Mirror