England’s 69-7 thrashing over the US in the opening game of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup was watched by over two million people on BBC One.
The audience peaked at 2.4 million viewers, whilst 600,000 viewers tuned in on BBC iPlayer. Throughout the rest of the weekend, Women’s World Cup games were watched by a total of 4.6 million viewers.
BBC Director of Sport Alex Kay-Jelski hailed the “record breaking numbers” in a sign of the growth of women’s rugby and women’s sport that has transpired this summer.
“It’s been a historical summer for women’s sport and BBC Sport is proud to have been at the heart of it,” he said.
“These record-breaking figures for the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup show the growing passion and interest of fans across the UK.
“With all four home nations competing on the world stage, we’re bringing audiences to every match, every moment, and the stories behind these inspiring female athletes. And with the tournament just getting started, there’s much more to come.”
Other group stage games from the first weekend of the Women’s Rugby World Cup saw Australia beat Samoa 73-0, Scotland beating Wales 38-8, and Ireland defeating Japan 42-14.
The Scotland-Wales game had a peak audience of 1.2 million, whilst Ireland’s victory over Japan had a peak audience of 534,000.
On BBC’s digital platforms (the BBC Sport website and app) the competition brought in 3.2 million unique visitors with 1.2 million engaging with live text pages during the matches.
In a sign of growth for women’s rugby, the opening weekend total viewership of the tournament surpassed the entire viewership of the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup, which garnered 3.7 million in total.
“If you could buy shares in women’s rugby, it would be your number one investment right now,” said BBC Sport pundit, Ruby Tui.
“It’s such a buzz to be here in England to witness this phenomenal growth of our game. World records are being broken every weekend and I’m here for it.”
Snapchat’s influence
Before the opening game on August 22, World Rugby struck a new partnership with Snapchat to help grow the tournament’s exposure across digital-native users.
Snapchat implemented Snapchat Cam, an augmented reality camera device which was integrated into stadiums’ infrastructure to capture a new experience for fans to watch the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Snapchat have also introduced Snapchat Lenses through the World Rugby Snapchat account. This will enable World Rugby to post a range of content, such as behind the scenes footage and post daily updates of the competition.
World Rugby is intending for Snapchat to be used to capture the social media’s 13-24-year-old demographic, which accounts for 90% of all users in the UK.
“Together with World Rugby, we are transforming how fans experience live sports, while also offering the chance for fans and brands to engage in new, creative and connected ways,” said Kahlen Macaulay, Senior Manager, International Sports Partnerships at Snapchat.
“Women’s sports are rightfully in the spotlight, and as these athletes inspire new generations of grassroots fans, we are proud to be bringing Snapchatters to the game – whether they are lifelong supporters, or tuning in for the very first time.”
