Is there proof of an increase in demand for Women's Rugby?
The Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, hosted in England, hit a record for the most bought tickets of a Women’s Rugby event.
55,000 tickets were sold in the pre-sale of the opening and closing matches and 47,000 were sold for the World Cup final according to World Rugby.
Women’s Rugby has become increasingly popular over the years, but the Allianz Stadium has never sold out for a women’s game.
World Rugby had to pause the pre-sale, so that they have more to sell nearer the time.
England winger, Jess Breach, on the Rugby Rodeo podcast said, “It’s so good, that many tickets got sold in a day. That is mental can't even fathom it in my head.”
England’s fullback, Ellie Kildunne added, “To see that it happened in a day, that’s what I can’t believe. I've been saying it a lot, this is the moment and there is no way I want to miss out on something like that.
Last month BBC Sport announced an exclusive UK rights deal with World Rugby for live coverage of Women's Rugby World Cup.
World Rugby Chief of Women’s Rugby Sally Horrox said: “Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 promises to be an era-defining celebration of rugby, as well as a catalyst for participation, economic and fan growth. Women and girls represent the most addressable opportunity to spearhead the growth of rugby and make a positive impact across the wider game and wider society."
Over 100,000 viewers tuned into The One Show where the live draw of the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup happened according to BBC Sport
The first World Cup began in 1991 and has been played every four years since.
The last one being played in New Zealand, where the English Red Roses narrowly missed out on World Champion title to New Zealand Black Ferns, ending their 30-match winning streak.
The world number one team, haven't lost a game since the this face-off.
The women's Five Nations was introduced in 1999, has now developed into the Six Nations, where England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy all complete for the Six Nations title.
This evidence suggests that Women's Rugby is becoming increasingly more recognised by the population.
The first ever recorded women's rugby union team was Edinburgh University in 1962 and the first fully documented women's club match took place at Toulouse Femina Sports, in France.
Jessica Hayden, a trusted women's rugby journalist believes rugby’s growth and diversity came from the three waves of feminism, as stated in her book 'Red Roses'.
How can we tell there has been a spike in interest in Women’s Rugby?
The statistics have come from the most recent tournament within Women’s Rugby, the Women's Six Nations, and have shown us all we need to know – some of the statistics break records!
The popularity of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations, amongst 18–24-year-old avid fans has risen from 19% to 24% year-on-year.
[Statistic from the Women's Sport Trust]
Graph made on canva.
Graph made on canva.
The Guinness Women’s Six Nations in 2024 was the most viewed on record with 8.1m tuning in for three minutes or more (33% more than in 2023).
[Statistic from the Women's Sport Trust]
Graph made on canva
Graph made on canva
Countries that have hosted a Women's Rugby World Cup
BBC 5 Live and BBC Sport commentator Sara Orchard: “I believe that the sport is growing at a very impressive an incredible rate across the world, but I believe it's growing for different reasons in European markets.
“I think there's a big appeal for girls to be seen to be strong have positive body image while I believe that in other parts of the world, perhaps they aren't as financially well resourced and it is more about getting girls off the streets and having a safe place to go, where they can be themselves and don't actually have to conform to traditional role models and that is part of their success elsewhere.”
All statistics are from Women's Six Nations.
259% increase in web/ app traffic & 75% increase in users across the Women's Six Nations online platforms.
53% increase in women's fantasy rugby players.
22% increase in match-day attendance compared to the previous Six Nations in 2023.
15.4M fans tuning in to watch the Guinness Women's Six Nations.
A 15% increase in social media followers for teams like the Red Roses
60k streams of Motherland, the official song of the WSN, on Spotify.
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