Women’s football should become one of the world’s top five sports by 2030, according to a Nielsen Sports report in collaboration with Pepsico, with a global fan base designed to grow 38%, reaching over 800 million people.
About 60% of these fans should be women, according to the report “undervalued to unlawful” released on Tuesday (17), being one of the few sports that is followed by more women than men.
The global broadcasting audience should also increase by 30% in major tournaments by 2030.
Although sponsorship agreements tripled for the 2023 women’s World Cup compared to the 2019 tournament, only a small fraction of global sponsorship budgets is allocated to women’s football, according to the study.
This represents a significant opportunity, the researchers argued, considering that women should lead more than 75% of family purchase decisions by 2028.
“We have long believed the potential of women’s football and today we are no longer just following progress, we are witnessing a breakthrough,” said Samantha Lamberti, director general of Nielsen Sports International.
“From media rights to sponsorship and fan engagement, it is no longer a future promise, but present value.”
Women’s football is already one of ten most straight globally sports, and the impulse seems to be growing. The US National Women’s Football League Championship hearing last year had an 18% increase over the previous year.
Disney+ last month announced an agreement to broadcast matches of the female Champions League throughout Europe, while Alexis Ohanian, co -founder of Reddit and husband of tennis player Serena Williams, acquired a participation in Chelsea, champion of the women’s super month.
Deloitte recently reported that WSL (England Women’s Football League) revenues have increased by 34% during the 2023/24 record season, and is providing for total WSL club revenue to reach a record of £ 100 million ($ 749.4 million) in the 2025/26 season.
The presence of audiences at WSL, however, fell after reaching the peak in 2023/24, in the wake of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, but it is expected to have another increase after the European Championship next month in Switzerland.
Nielsen reported an increase in interest around large tournaments. Switzerland increased its base of women’s football fans by 22% in 2024, before the Euro, while interest in the United Kingdom increased 15% in the following two years to England’s victory in Euro 2022.
Women’s football has an increase of 60% in the number of fans in the last five years, according to Nielsen, with the strongest boost in China, with 186 million new fans during this period, in Brazil and India.
Growth in participation reflected the increase in interest, with China registering an increase of 300%. Participation also increased in Europe with France – a 150%jump – Spain (95%), the Netherlands (25%) and the United Kingdom (24%) recording the largest increases since 2019.
