Where does women’s football really stand?
It’s time to stop using interest in men’s football as the bar for the women’s game.
The Women’s World Cup hit a similar number of peak Google searches to Wimbledon this year, and a greater volume than major sporting events such as the Masters and the Ashes. While these events drew more searches than the Women’s World Cup in their core markets, the Women’s World Cup benefitted from football’s global appeal to hit a higher overall volume of searches. And there were more searches for the Women’s World Cup in host nation Australia this summer than there were for the Ashes.
While the Men’s World Cup still draws more searches than the women’s tournament, no other sporting event comes close to it aside from the Olympics. As evidenced by tennis, cricket, golf and many others, a sport can have less followers than men’s football and still offer significant commercial value.
By Sophie Tomlinson
Chief Data Scientist