What the Women's Euros Data Says About How Fans Actually Engage

GWI recently released a report on the 2025 Women's Euros, and there's some interesting stuff in the data. The tournament broke records - 12% more European fans watched compared to 2022, with UK viewership up 29%. But the standout findings aren't really about total numbers. They're about how different groups of fans engaged with the tournament.

The Engagement Paradox

48% of male football fans watched the Women's Euros on TV versus 45% of female fans. On the surface, more men tuned in.

But female fans were more active across almost every other metric. Higher rates of podcast streaming, merchandise purchases, social media consumption, and engagement with tournament sponsors like Just Eat and Lidl.

It's a reminder that raw viewership and actual engagement are different things. One tells you reach, the other tells you who's invested. If you're building campaigns, the latter probably matters more.

Where Fans Go for Updates

There's a clear split in how people followed the tournament. Men leaned on traditional channels - TV highlights, sports pages, post-game analysis. 23% of female fans used social media to get live updates during matches.

For the 2026 World Cup, 71% of excited fans say social media is essential for sports information. The key platforms are TikTok, X and YouTube - not supplementary channels, but primary ones for a significant chunk of the audience.

If you're working in sports marketing and not building with social-first thinking, you're probably missing a big part of where your audience actually is.

Social Viewing Changes Everything

Women's Euros fans were more likely to watch matches with friends, family or co-workers than fans of men's tournaments. These social viewers structure their day around matches and show higher investment in the tournament.

There's a commercial angle here too - social viewers are 31% more likely to research products they see advertised and 38% more likely to discuss those ads with whoever they're watching with. The environment shapes receptiveness to messaging.

Context matters as much as the content itself. Same ad, different impact depending on whether someone's watching alone or with a group.

Sponsor Engagement Varies

Male fans engage more with McDonald's sponsorships. Female fans are 10% more likely to engage with Unilever. Same tournament, completely different sponsor resonance by audience.

It's straightforward demographic insight, but it matters. Understanding which audiences connect with which brands is the difference between effective sponsorship and just putting logos on things.

Unexpected Audiences

52% of European fans want more media coverage for women's football post-Euros. 65% of Women's Euros fans say they'll engage more with the 2026 World Cup than they did in 2022.

Some unexpected groups are showing up too - at least 10% more new parents are paying attention to the World Cup. And more people in Singapore are excited about the tournament than in Australia, despite no Singaporean representation on the pitch.

Worth questioning assumptions about who cares about what. Audiences don't always show up where you expect them to.

A Few Takeaways

The report highlights some useful principles:

• Engagement quality often matters more than reach quantity

• Social media has moved from supplementary to central for sports content

• Platform strategy and viewing context shape how you should show up

• Data can challenge assumptions about who your audience actually is

The 2026 World Cup will inherit momentum from the Women's Euros. For anyone working on campaigns in that space, thinking about platform strategy, understanding viewing environments, and staying open to who's actually watching seems pretty essential.

The data tells a clearer story than assumptions do.

Source: This post draws from GWI's report "5 Lessons From the Women's Euros" - full report available at gwi.com/reports/gwi-euros