EURO 2025 has been another record-breaking tournament for women’s football. Before the final has even taken place, 623,088 fans have attended games. This is more than the 574,875 people who went to matches in England in 2022.

All but two games at this Euros have been sold out. Granted, all games were held at medium-sized stadiums, but the attendance record was still broken. The England edition had two sold-out games in big capacity stadiums: Wembley (87,192 people attended) and Old Trafford (68,871 attendees).

People didn’t just show up in numbers in the stadium, they made noise, too. Charlie (30) from England recognises the German fans. “I have been to a couple of Germany games now, the German fans are amazing. They have taken up about 80% of the stadium when Germany have been playing. They are so loud and so supportive.” Likewise, the England games have felt like home games to him. Swiss fan Nathalie (40) adds: “Seeing all the stadiums full to support women playing football, as a long-time women’s football fan it makes me truly happy.” Maria (26) from Switzerland highlights the travelling fans: “People are showing up despite the Swiss prices, it’s great.”

Beyond the stands

It is not just the stadiums that were filled to the rim with fans. Fan zones in Swiss host cities have been full of women’s football aficionados watching games every time. I went to the fan zone in Bern and watched the chaotic first half of the match between Sweden and Germany. It was hard to make your way through the masses of people dressed in Germany and Sweden jerseys, but most of all Switzerland shirts. It seemed like a lot of Bern locals made their way to Bundesplatz to watch two major teams in women’s football face each other on the big screen.

We probably all saw the images of that same Bundesplatz erupting in cheers when Riola Xhemaili scored the equaliser against Finland, qualifying host nation Switzerland for their first Euros quarter-finals. It was not just the Bern fan zone that was coloured fully red for the evening; Swiss fans gathered all over the country in and out of fan zones to watch their nation play.

The Euros catapulted women’s football in Switzerland. A whopping 25,000 Swiss fans participated in a fan walk before La Nati played their quarter-final game against Spain in Bern. Nathalie participated in the fan walk and says: “A true red wave taking over the city. It was just absolute madness! For such a small country to have so many people show up for their women’s national team.. I’m just so proud of that fan walk in particular.” Maria adds: “It’s been so hard to get a shirt here, I think they underestimated the demand”.

Nathalie thinks the Euros will contribute to better support of the women’s national team, but is sceptic towards further growth of the Swiss league. The Netherlands Eredivisie hasn’t experienced a growth after their home Euros either, which we analysed before. Maria agrees with Nathalie and adds: “I don’t want to be too cynical, but I do think it will be interesting to see the lasting impact of this in Switzerland”.

‘We quickly grew from a room that held 60 people to the following week, a pub that held over 200’

Pubs all over Europe have opened their doors to accommodate fans who wanted to watch matches with their friends or alone. Baller FC are based in London and aim to bring people together to watch women’s football matches. Rachel, founder of Baller FC tells us: “Euros 2022 is when we started running our watch parties. We quickly grew from a room that held 60 people to the following week, a pub that held over 200 – the Lionesses kept on winning and more and more people heard about our parties so there was a huge demand.” They have hosted about 300 to 700 people for all the England games.

Another London venue, Camden Beer Hall, are organising watch parties in co-operation with Arsenal Women Supporters Club. Anne, event manager at Camden Beer Hall tells us: “Our Lionesses matches have been doing really well at the Beer Hall. We always have the option of showing the other matches, but there hasn’t been that much interest to be honest.”

That is different in Amsterdam. We spoke to Marianne, owner of Bar Buka in the Dutch city. Bar Buka shows all of the major women’s football tournaments on the big screen in the bar. Marianne sees a growing interest in the women’s game, she says: “There are more and more role models now that we can look up to and it’s more visible on social media and TV now.” She expects the bar to be completely full during next Sunday’s final, despite the Netherlands being out of the tournament in the group stages.

‘There has been enough media coverage, but it was not always positive’

Home watchers have showed up on their couches in large numbers too. English broadcaster ITV reported their largest viewing numbers this year overall, and no, it wasn’t for a men’s football match. 10.2 million viewers were watching on television as Chloe Kelly scored the rebound of her own penalty kick to secure England their second consecutive place in a Women’s Euros final. 4 million Italians watched the same game on Italian television.

Ally (43) watched this tournament from home and is happy with the media coverage of the tournament. “We are lucky in the UK that the tournament has been covered really well, every game has been on a free to air national TV station”, Ally tells us. “There have been general highlights shows and match highlights easily available online, with a lot of general podcasts and debate too. What is great is, unlike in 2022 when there were questions why every game was being shown on national TV, this pushback has quietened noticeably this time round”.

Leontine from the Netherlands agrees with Ally on the quantity of media coverage of the Euros. “In the Netherlands every game has been televised so I think that’s great. Although there were many angry men who thought that was too much. There has been enough media coverage but it was not always positive. And that is very understandable in regard to the level the Oranje Leeuwinnen had and the way Jonker tried to ‘use’ the media to get something out of his team. It’s sad because on paper the Dutch national team is very decent but that’s another discussion.”

History in the making

Broadcasters are clearly interested in television rights for the tournament. UEFA’s revenue of media rights from the Euros has almost doubled from the 2022 edition, from €37.5 million to an expected €72 million.

Charlie notes the presence of Euro-centred commercials and banners all over Switzerland. “You can’t go anywhere without seeing adverts with all the players in it”, he says. The Euros are not just an opportunity for fans to watch their favourite players on the pitch. They are also a commercial opportunity for companies.

According to UEFA, this edition of the Women’s Euros has attracted the largest sponsorship programme ever for a UEFA tournament, with more than 20 companies sponsoring. Research agency Ampere Analysis has estimated that these Euros will generate about € 32.5 million in sponsorship revenue, which is a 112% increase on the previous Euros. They attribute the growing revenue to the growing fanbase of women’s football. As one of the sponsors of the tournament writes on their website: “The basis of this partnership is the shared belief in the enormous potential of women’s football.”

We asked Maria how it feels to be part of a record-breaking Euros. She replies, “It’s so cool that all these records are being broken because it shows that more and more people are paying attention”. So, next time you hear someone drone “nobody watches women’s football,” feel free to redirect them to this piece.

You can read all of the latest news, analysis and opinion at Euro 2025 on The Halfway Line.