Canada’s final match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup attracted an average audience of 3.2 million on CTV and RDS on Saturday according to preliminary numbers from Numeris, making it the most-watched Women’s World Cup match ever and the most-watched program on Canadian television last weekend.
In total, 7.5 million unique viewers watched some or all of Canada’s 2-1 loss to England in the quarter-finals. Audience levels peaked at 4.3 million in the second half, as Canada pushed for the equalizer.
The match attracted the second-highest audience for a women’s soccer game, just behind the 3.7 million people who tuned in for the semi-final match of the 2012 London Olympics.
Canada’s five tournament matches averaged 4 million viewers, with more than 15 million unique viewers tuning in over the course of the tournament. According to CTV/RDS parent Bell Media, 8 million unique Canadian viewers have watched the tournament through to the quarter-final stage.
The USA/China quarter-final match is the most watched non-Canadian game ever, with an average audience of 859,000 viewers on CTV, TSN and RDS — breaking the previous record set by the USA’s Round of 16 victory over Colombia.
Canadians have collectively consumed 63.7 million hours of FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage across CTV, TSN and RDS so far, with audience levels through the quarter-finals more than four times greater than the previous tournament in 2011.
The tournament has proven hugely popular with female audiences, attracting 2 million unique Canadian female viewers and nearly half of Canadian girls aged 2-17.
Online, the tournament has attracted 6 million page views on TSN.ca during the month of June, while there have also been 620,000 video streams of live tournament action.
