BBC Sport made history on Saturday (20 September) as its coverage of the England vs France Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-final drew a record-breaking peak audience of 3.3 million across BBC TV and digital platforms – the highest ever for a women’s rugby union match on UK television. The match also drove a further 2.4 million views on the BBC Sport live text pages.

The tournament has reached an incredible 9.8 million BBC TV viewers and driven 8.8 million streams across BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport platforms to date, reflecting the rapidly rising profile of the women’s game.

The New Zealand vs Canada semi-final drew a peak audience of 1.6 million viewers across BBC TV and iPlayer as Canada delivered a commanding performance to secure their own place in the final.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup continues to be a massive hit with digital audiences with currently 36 million views on BBC Sport’s social media clips from the tournament. This is in addition to the 97.8 million page views for all rugby union content on BBC Sport platforms, with 7.9 million views on live Women’s Rugby World Cup reporting pages alone.

Clips from the brand-new BBC Radio 5 Live women’s rugby podcast Barely Rugby have also racked up an impressive 1.3 million views across social media, showing a strong signal of growing engagement beyond the pitch.

Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, said: “The response to the Women’s Rugby World Cup has been phenomenal. These record-breaking figures reflect just how powerfully the tournament has connected with audiences across the UK. The Red Roses’ journey to the final has been inspiring, emotional and unmissable, and BBC Sport has been proud to bring fans every moment of it.”