Recent data has shown an accelerated amount of fans that tuned in to women’s sports during the first three months of 2022, beating the previous record by 50%.

The data released by ‘Women’s Sport Trust’ (WST) revealed that 15.1 million people watched at least one women’s sports event between January and March this year.

The Women’s Super League (WSL) and Six Nations were the most popular among audiences, with 58% of all UK women’s sports viewers tuning into WSL matches.

The 15.1 million figure is a significant increase on 2019’s previously set milestone of 10.2 million viewers.

The large viewership is also three times higher than the 5.06 million UK viewers who were watching women’s sports this time last year.

The data released by the women’s charity concluded the average person watched 122 minutes of women’s sports during 2022’s first quarter, a 180% increase on the average time spent watching women’s sports during Q1 of 2021.

The report also highlighted that 33% of fans have watched women’s sports on at least three occasions during this year’s first quarter, a 16% increase from last year’s figures.

WST chief executive, Tammy Parlous, said the figures reflect women’s sports’ increased visibility on the global and broadcasting scale.

“These encouraging figures support our longstanding view that if women’s sport is made visible, then audiences will watch and validates the commitment that UK broadcasters are making to unprecedented visibility of women’s sport,” Parlous said.

“The growing overall numbers for women’s sport, aligned to increasing habit, is particularly exciting for creating a commercially sustainable offering, particularly ahead of a huge year for women’s sport…,” Parlous added.

“There has never been a better time for brands to consider investing in women’s sport for the first time.”

The increased views for the WSL come after the league entered its first season with new major broadcasting partners Sky Sports and the BBC.

Almost one million viewers alone tuned in to the WSL’s opening five weeks across Sky Sports and the BBC.

A recent study released by Fox Sports in partnership with YouGov revealed that 70% of Australians increased their consumption of women’s sports since pre-pandemic times.

A further 56% of Australians attributed their viewing behaviours to increased media coverage of women’s sports with 49% of respondents attributing their viewership to increased broadcast coverage.

The increased viewership and engagement with women’s sports marks a transformative time for the industry with the rise in its popularity leading to several records being broken and increased platforms being created to give female athletes a voice.

The news of the UK’s increased women’s sports viewership comes after the women’s championship league semi-final between Barcelona and Real Madrid broke attendance records.