Matildas victory over Denmark matches top TV show of 2022; more watched Tillies than last year’s AFL grand final; 3.56m average on par with Ash Barty’s Aussie Open Women's final

News 8 Aug 2023 - 3 min read

Matildas victory over Denmark matches top TV show of 2022; more watched Tillies than last year’s AFL grand final; 3.56m average on par with Ash Barty’s Aussie Open Women's final

By Arvind Hickman - Editor – Media | Agencies | Consulting

Matildas stars Emily Van Egmond, Hayley Raso, Ellie Carpenter and Katrina Gorry weren't the only ones celebrating Seven's bumper TV audience Pic: Seven

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The Matildas have marched into quarter finals and could be on track to record the largest TV audience of recent years if last night's performance is anything to go by. In the past 18 months, only Ash Barty's Australian Open Women's swansong has come close to the 3.56m average audience who tuned into Seven and its BVOD, 7plus – which scored a record audience for a single event. Optus Sport has broken its own two-week record for streaming.

Seven’s Total TV overnight ratings of the Matildas 2-0 win against Denmark clocked up an average audience of 3.56m viewers and a peak audience of 3.75m, making it the most watched TV program of the year.

Optus Sport, which is also covering live games aside from the Matildas at Women's World Cup, has reported its strongest two weeks of streaming since the platform launched in 2016.

Drawing on OzTAM data, Seven said the game reached 6.54 million different viewers across its TV and BVOD platforms.

The game’s average audience included a national broadcast audience of 3.18m viewers on Seven (2.29m in the capital cities), and another 384,000 viewers on 7plus – which was a record for an individual event on Seven’s BVOD, 48 per cent up on the previous benchmark high.

Seven’s coverage dominated its broadcast time slot, scoring a 71.3 per cent commercial audience share in total people, 74.5 per cent in 25 to 54s and 78.5 per cent in 16 to 39s. To put these figures into context, last year’s most watched TV program was Nine's Australian Open women’s final presentation that followed Ash Barty's win over Danielle Collins. That had an average audience of 3.58m viewers and a peak national audience of 4.26m.

The usual sporting TV audience benchmark, Seven's 2022 AFL grand final between the victorious Geelong Cats and Sydney Swans, pulled in 2.96m average viewers. In fact, the Matildas game rated higher than every AFL grand final since 2016, except for 2021 and 2020, in addition to every NRL grand final and State of Origin during the same period.

Cailtin Foord scores — *Matildas forward Caitlin Foord opens the Aussie's account in the Round of 16 fixture against Denmark. Pic: Seven*

To date, Seven’s coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 has reached 9.25m broadcast viewers and a further 1.67m on 7plus, with last night's Matildas fixture against Denmark the top rating game.

Optus Sport said that viewers are tuning in for all of the games and the tournament has drawn the largest two weeks of audience on in the platform's history, surpassing its coverage of the Premier League and the Men's UEFA Euro 2020.

Women's football has proven its pulling power in stadiums across Australia and New Zealand, but it is the Matildas who are undoubtedly the main attraction, defeating the 13th ranked Danes in Sydney on Monday (7 August).

In a tense encounter, the ‘Tillies laboured against the dominant Danes for half an hour until Mary Fowler turned and sent a through ball that unleashed Caitlin Foord on her afterburners. The forward left defenders in her wake before calmly slotting home (pictured above) to send 75,000 spectators – and lounge rooms across the nation – into raptures.

The Matildas came out stronger in the second stanza and were bossing the game when a neatly-worked move through the Danish box was thrashed home by Hayley Raso to settle matters.

Australia will now play against the winner of the France v Morocco in the Quarter Final in Brisbane on 12 August.

Seven, Optus Sport and a new generation of fans will be hoping The Matildas can continue their run deep into the tournament and break more records on and off the pitch.