Women’s Football 2023: How The Tournament Fared Online

What kicked off the social conversation?

This year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup saw mountains of mentions on social. Host countries Australia and New Zealand welcomed 32 teams to the tournament – and the whole world tuned in to see who would take home the trophy.

From the most talked-about teams to the brands in the spotlight, we looked into the data to discover what fans are saying about the tournament online.
Let’s find out.

The biggest moments

From celebrating wins to discussing tactics, fans are always quick to share their thoughts about sports on social. By following these trends, we can see exactly which highlights send shockwaves across the internet.

Throughout the duration of the World Cup, there were over 2.2 million social media mentions, according to Brandwatch. That’s a lot.

Interest remained steady since the competition kicked off, initially peaking during Round 16 when Australia won 2-0 against Denmark. England also won on penalties against Nigeria on this day, putting them through to the next round. There were almost 120,000 mentions on the day as fans were glued to their screens.

After a second peak during the semi-finals when England beat Australia 3-1, the biggest peak of the tournament occurred – unsurprisingly – during the finals. There were over 150,000 mentions of the game online on this day, where Spain took home the title.

A look into demographics

The World Cup attracted the attention of millions, but the demographic comparisons might be surprising to some. Interestingly, 75% of gender-categorized authors discussing the world cup on X (formerly Twitter) were male. That’s an intriguing majority.

While it’s easy to assume that the Women’s World Cup would attract more female fans to the sport, it seems male authors were still just as interested in the tournament. And with the work being put in to make women’s soccer more accessible, it’s not a surprise that a more balanced gender distribution is tuning in.

The fan favorites

Using Brandwatch Consumer Research, we wanted to find out which countries had the biggest share of the social conversation.

For the first time, the tournament was jointly hosted by two nations, and according to social data, Australia and New Zealand both seemed to benefit from the collaboration.
Australia earned almost 350,000 mentions during the competition, making them the second most discussed country during the World Cup.

England was the most discussed country, beating Australia by a small margin. England’s success in making it to the final can be attributed to the high mention volume, as fans were keen to discuss their highs and lows.

When diving into the mentions about the country, there was also a spike in mentions when players from the US team elected to not sing the national anthem during their match against Vietnam.

The final

Spain and England battled it out during the World Cup final, in which Spain took home the trophy. There were an impressive 161,000 mentions on the day of the match.

When looking at minute-by-minute mentions, an initial peak occurred at 21:28 PM AEST, when England’s goalie Mary Earps saved a penalty kick taken by Spain.

Spain were crowned the winners of the Women’s World Cup 2023 at 10:03 PM AEST, with a peak of 2,100 mentions occurring just a few minutes after. Fans were quick to praise Spain’s play and send commiserations to the England team.