England’s final group stage match win against Wales during the UEFA Women’s European Championship (Euros) has outperformed Premier League club Chelsea’s victory at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in terms of UK viewership. This is despite both events being aired live and free-to-air simultaneously.
The Lionesses’ 6-1 group-stage win at the Women’s Euros on July 13, broadcasted by UK commercial broadcaster ITV, attracted an average of 4.2 million viewers across all devices. This figure peaked at 4.6 million during the match, including linear channels ITV1, streaming service ITVX, and STV - ITV's Scottish affiliate.
Specifically, coverage on linear channel ITV1 averaged around 2.9 million and peaked at a staggering 4.4 million.
Chelsea's CWC final victory lags behind
In contrast to this impressive turnout for women's football, Chelsea’s triumph over France’s Paris Saint-Germain in FIFA’s Club World Cup final was watched by only about half as many people - with just over a million tuning into Channel 5 to watch it live.
Despite a peak audience of approximately 2.3 million during the match itself, these figures pale in comparison to those achieved by England's women team. Both BBC and ITV hold UK rights to broadcast the women's soccer tournament and have divided up coverage of group stage matches between them accordingly. As we move into knockout stages of the tournament now underway; three out of four quarterfinal matches will be shown on BBC starting with Norway vs Italy followed by Sweden vs England then Spain vs Switzerland respectively from July 17-18th .
ITV will air France versus Germany on July 19th , while each network will share one semifinal each, with ITV getting first pick. The final match on July 27 will be aired by both broadcasters.
Club World Cup viewership figures
It's worth noting that Channel 5’s viewership figures for the Club World Cup final do not include UK viewers who streamed the game for free via DAZN’s service. Global sports streaming service DAZN – the worldwide CWC rightsholder – has yet to share its viewership figures.
Channel 5 acquired a rights package to air 23 of the 63 fixtures during the FIFA Club World Cup through a sublicensing deal with DAZN earlier this year. This coverage drew over 14 million UK viewers throughout its duration. Interestingly, these UK viewership trends contrast sharply with those in France, where Chelsea's clash against domestic league winners Paris Saint-Germain attracted more attention than France’s match against the Netherlands in Women's Euros.
The PSG loss was watched by a domestic audience of nearly five million on French commercial broadcaster TF1, while less than half that number tuned into watch Women’s Euro game. It is clear that England's Lionesses have captured significant attention and support from their home audience - outperforming even some of their male counterparts' matches in terms of live TV and online viewing figures.
