This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Football 50 2025 report
Analyst,
Brand Finance
The UEFA Women’s Euros 2025 broke attendance, viewership, and streaming records, but the story of the sport’s power to engage fans is still unfolding. New fan research data from Brand Finance indicates that women’s football may prove more effective than men’s football in the arena of converting familiarity into actual engagement.
Half of European football fans respondents say they are familiar with the UEFA Women’s Euros and 55% say they are familiar with the FIFA Women’s World Cup, compared to just 19% who are familiar with the Barclays Women’s Super League. Similarly, other local domestic women leagues like Spain’s Liga F (26%) and Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga (25%) also trail far behind international tournaments in terms of familiarity.
Despite the gap in recognition, the Women’s Super League stands out for the way it converts familiarity into actual engagement – folks who know about the league are more likely to tune into a match. Of the 19% of European football fans who responded that they are familiar with the Women’s Super League, 82% of the men and 87% of the women say they watched a match on TV within the past year. That’s a higher relative engagement rate than the Premier League. Of the 59% of European football fans who say they’re familiar with the Premier League, 82% of men and 83% of women report that they’ve watched a match in the past year.
The numbers suggest that those who are familiar with the Women’s Super League are more likely to become active fans. This indicates that the Women’s Super League has a higher engagement ratio than the Premier League, but at a lower scale, given the Premier League’s much higher familiarity among European football fans.
The Women’s Super League draws its strongest relative familiarity from the 25 to 34 age bracket, with 30% of men and 33% of women European football fans in this age group claim familiarity with the league, indicating the potential to develop a long-term fan base.
Even so, older fans drive conversations about the Women’s Super League: 27% of male European fans between 45-54 years old and a remarkable 37% of European women fans between 55-64 years old said they’ve spoken about the league with friends or family.
By contrast, discussion of the Premier League is dominated by men under 45, where 30% of European football fans between 25-34 and 32% of European fans between 35-44 report it’s something they talk about with friends/family. On the other hand, European women fans over 45 also contribute heavily to its conversation, at relatively higher rates than younger female fans in Europe.
Engagement with the UEFA Women’s Euros is also robust and deeply loyal. Our research shows that those who follow the Women’s Euros are more likely to spend money to show their support, with 67% responding that they purchased official merchandise from their favourite club team in the past year. 63% of UEFA Women’s Euros followers believe that major sports brands should invest more in women’s sport, and 54% believe that women’s football can become nearly as popular as the men’s game - half of them say they’re more engaged now than they were five years ago.
That optimism reflects the reality - this summer’s UEFA Women’s European Championship set new records. In Switzerland, 657,000 fans attended 31 matches while the TV viewership was also the highest ever – 12.2 million in the UK alone watched the finals across all platforms, according to the BBC.
The Lionesses’ dramatic penalty shootout victory over Spain has started a national conversation, not only about the team’s excellence but about the future of women’s football.
With growing familiarity, engagement and positive perceptions, the sport is gaining momentum while already establishing itself as a powerful draw for fans who purchase merchandise, attend matches, and tell their friends and family about their favourite players and teams.
