England victory over Scotland at the Women’s World Cup 2019 on Sunday was the most watched women’s game of all time in the United Kingdom.
The opening fixture in Group D, played at Nice’s Allianz Riviera stadium and broadcast live on BBC One, attracted a peak audience of 6.1m viewers.
Around 38 per cent of the available television audience witnessed Nikita Parris’ controversial penalty and an Ellen White goal earn England a 2-1 win and all three points.
Scotland, who scored a late consolation through Claire Emslie, will hope for a positive result against Japan on Friday to boost their chances of reaching the knockout stages.
The 6.1m audience was around 2m stronger than the previous record, for a 2017 European Championship semi-final between England and the Netherlands on Channel 4.
Audiences are expected to grow further if both home nations qualify from Group D, with England head coach Phil Neville confident of progressing far in the tournament.
“I want us to play like we did in the first half for 90 minutes,” Neville said after the victory, played in front of a crowd of 13,188.
“We need to be relentless now as we want to be here for the next 37 days and to do that then every single one of us, myself included, have got to keep driving the standards all the time. The standards start with me.”
