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As the Women’s World Cup Round of 16 wraps up Tuesday, the tournament in Australia and New Zealand has already cruised past the highest previous attendance in the event’s history.
The latest edition of the tournament officially surpassed Canada’s previous record of 1.35 million fans in 2015 on Sunday, which saw the USWNT’s shocking — and costly — loss to Sweden in Melbourne.
Ahead of the knockout stage, FIFA had announced that more than 1.7 million tickets had already been sold — far above original expectations that were still projecting a record figure by tournament’s end.
Australia defeated Denmark on Monday in front of a sellout crowd of more than 75,000 at Sydney’s Stadium Australia — equalling the record attendance for its national women’s soccer team contest set by the Matildas’ WWC opener against Ireland. Australia plays its quarterfinal on Saturday at Brisbane’s 52,000-seat Suncorp Stadium.
Fellow co-host New Zealand narrowly missed out on the knockout round but garnered strong crowds during its three group-stage matches despite initial uncertainty about enthusiasm from fans in the country.
Already at a record pace, FIFA still has eight more matches to push the attendance even higher — and closer to what would be a staggering figure of 2 million.
