Record-Breaking UEFA Women’s Euro Attendances Surpass Previous Edition

The cumulative attendances for matches at UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 in Switzerland will surpass the previous edition in England three years ago with two games left to play.

The crowd at last night’s final quarter-final between France and Germany in Basel took the combined attendances from the 28 matches so far to 574,117, just 758 of the all-time record. During Tuesday’s first semi-final between Italy and England, the aggregate figure will surpass 600,000 for tbe first time since the competition began in 1984. The average attendances at the tournament are also in excess of 20,000 for the first time ever.

The UEFA Women’s Euro in England in 2022 was book-ended by two headline-grabbing attendances at the country’s two largest grounds. 68,871 were at the Opening Match between England and Austria at Old Trafford and 87,192 witnessed the dramatic competition final between England and Germany at Wembley Stadium.

These remain the two largest crowds in the competition’s history and inflated the tournament’s overall attendances to an aggregate of 574,875, more than double the cumulative audience at any previous edition of the UEFA Women’s Euro.

These figures seemed almost unbeatable, especially considering that the next tournament would be staged in Switzerland, a country without the same passionate tradition for the game and a women’s team which had never progressed beyond the group stage of the competition. More importantly, none of the nation’s stadiums have a capacity in excess of 40,000.

Nonetheless, the European governing body believed they could surpass the figures in England and have been proved right. The tournament has consistently sold out the country’s choice of stadiums and the consistence attendances throughout the tournament have led it to overtake the figures in England even before the showpiece final next Sunday, which is almost certainly set to attract the largest crowd of the 2025 tournament.

Six of the ten attendances in the 41-year history of the tournament have been recorded at this UEFA Women’s Euro. Notably, all of the previous record crowds have centred around either the final of the competition or matches involving the host nation.

This has not been the case in Switzerland, where three of those six attendances have been at games involving two visiting teams – Germany v Denmark, Netherlands v France and Germany v France. Indeed the match between the Germans and the Danes in Basel was witnessed by the highest-ever crowd at a finals match which did not involve the host nation.

The first game for the host nation Switzerland at the same St. Jakob Park venue in Basel pulled in a crowd of 34,063. This was the highest-ever attendance for a women’s match involving the Swiss national team. Their success in reaching the last eight for the first time maintained local interest in the tournament for longer, helping boost other attendances.

UEFA also estimate that during the group phase of the competition 60,000 fans took part in fan walks to the stadiums before games. This included 8,000 from Wales and the Netherlands ahead of their meeting in Lucerne. The following day, 14,000 Swiss and Icelandic supporters walked the 3km from the fan zone in central Bern to the Stadion Wankdorf where the two teams played that evening.

“If it was not clear before, it is undeniable now – women’s football is unstoppable and here to stay,” said UEFA’s women’s football director Nadine Kessler. “Before a ball was even kicked, over 600,000 tickets were sold – a record-breaking milestone that speaks volumes about the growing passion for the women’s game.”

“Nearly every match has been a sell-out, with electric atmospheres and fans turning out in unprecedented numbers. Millions more are following the action around the world through social media and live broadcasts. This is more than a tournament; it’s a movement, and the response from across Europe and beyond proves that women’s football is not only here to stay – it is setting the new standard.”