England’s defeat sets new record for U.K.’s most-watched women’s match

England’s World Cup final with Spain was watched by an average of 13.3 million people on television in the U.K.

This is a new country record for a women’s football match and one of the biggest audiences of the year so far.

The number of viewers peaked at 14.8 million in the closing minutes of the Lionesses’ 1-0 defeat in Sydney, according to overnight data released by the ratings organisation Barb.

The figures are the combined TV audience from kick-off to final whistle across BBC One and ITV, both of which showed the game live.

It also includes people who watched the match on their TV set using the BBC iPlayer or ITVX, but does not include non-TV devices.

The average TV audience for Sunday’s final was more than two million higher than the previous U.K. record for a women’s football match, set at the Euro 2022 final at Wembley when over 11 million viewers watched the Lionesses beat Germany 2-1.

The biggest TV audience of 2023 so far was for King Charles III’s coronation service at Westminster Abbey on May 6.

The coronation was seen by an average of 18.8 million people in the U.K. across 11 channels.