With one-third of the group stage left to play, the 2025 Euro has already shattered tournament records in both attendance and viewership.
The crowds in Switzerland broke the women's European Championship group-stage attendance record with a combined 287,438 fans packing stadiums through the first two matchdays — with four more days and eight games left before the knockouts.
Plus, this year's Euro has smashed the record attendance for a match not featuring the host nation — and done it twice.
First, No. 2 Spain's 5-0 opening win over No 22 Portugal set a new mark with a crowd of 29,520 in Bern on July 3rd, before No. 3 Germany's 2-1 defeat of No. 12 Denmark blasted that record when 34,165 fans packed Basel's St. Jakob-Park on Tuesday.
Attendance has already surpassed the final combined total of every previous edition except the 2022 tournament, with this year on track to fell host England's mark, as well.
This year's crowds are even more impressive considering Switzerland's venues are significantly smaller than many used in England's edition, with London's 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium — the site of the 2022 final — dwarfing the 34,250 capacity of the largest Swiss venue.
Even outside of Europe, the continental championship is making history.
Boosted by the first-ever non-cable Euro media deal in the US, the tournament earned its best-ever group-stage, English-language viewership in the States this week, with Fox platforms reporting that the the first 10 2025 matches saw a 123% increase over the 2022 edition.
Even more, No. 10 France's 2-1 opening win over defending champions No. 5 England garnered 690,000 viewers on Saturday, blasting the previous average first-round viewership by an astounding 329% to become the most-watched English-language group-stage Euro match in US broadcast history.
With historic attendance and viewership, the sky's the limit for the 2025 Euro.
UEFA's 2025 Euro tournament is already knocking on the door of history, as the European Championship is on track to shatter the competition's overall attendance record — despite not kicking off until next week.
This year's Switzerland-hosted edition has sold more than 570,000 of the 673,000 tickets available as of Thursday.
Given that tally, England's 2022 Euro record of 574,875 is likely to fall in the coming days.
In addition to the tickets already on sale, stadiums will release another 32,000 to accommodate the knockout stages in the coming weeks.
While Switzerland is poised to claim the Euro's total attendance title by the competition's July 27th finale, England's single-game record crowd of 87,192 — set at the 2022 championship match — will be safe, as no Swiss venue matches the capacity of London's iconic Wembley Stadium.
The 2025 Euro final will be a much more elite affair, as only 34,250 seats are available at Basel's St. Jakob-Park — the largest of the tournament's eight venues.
That said, this summer's European Championship will have more eyes on it than ever before, and not just from the stands.
The 2022 edition shattered viewership records worldwide, but the 2025 Euro has a chance to level up even more, as the tournament has seen its global broadcast footprint expand — particularly in the US.
UEFA inked a media deal with Fox Sports in late May, ensuring that audiences Stateside will have live access to at least 20 of the Euro's 31 matches next month.
While the overall tournament chases new attendance and viewership records, the 16 teams bound for Switzerland will be battling toward the 2025 Euro trophy when the competition kicks off next Wednesday.
On Tuesday, 2024/25 UEFA Champions League winners Arsenal announced that the Gunners are making the 60,704-capacity Emirates Stadium their permanent home for all WSL matches on the heels of last season's successful nine-game run in the north London venue.
Arsenal dominated the WSL in attendance during their 2024/25 campaign with a total of 415,000 tickets sold, a 20% increase over the Gunners' 2023/24 season.
Even more, the club averaged crowds of over 34,000 fans for the team's nine matches hosted at the men's side's historic Highbury home.
Both Arsenal's and the league's season-high attendance came in February, when 56,784 fans packed Emirates for the Gunners' North London Derby match against Tottenham.
While all of Arsenal's 11 WSL home games will kick off at Emirates, the reigning European champs will open their UWCL defense at the significantly smaller, 4,500-capacity Meadow Park, with future Champions League matches moving to Highbury should the Gunners advance to the tournament's knockout rounds.
"For us, this is just the beginning, and bringing every WSL match to the Emirates is another step for more supporters to be part of this special journey," said Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers in a club statement. "We'll come back next season, with fire in our hearts, more determined, more ambitious, and more together than ever."
Texas softball made program history on Friday, winning the 2025 Women’s College World Series (WCWS) to claim a first-ever national championship in their eighth trip to Oklahoma City.
The No. 6-seed Longhorns completed the best-of-three championship series with a dominant 10-4 victory over No. 12-seed Texas Tech, setting a program wins record with 56 on the season.
"This is why I came to Texas," said grad student first baseman Joely Mitchell following the championship win. "This is everything I dreamed of as a kid."
Anchored by star sophomore pitcher Teagan Kavan — who took home the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award after not allowing a single earned run in the nearly 32 WCWS innings she threw — Texas's title is the SEC's first in 10 years. The Longhorns now join only Florida and Alabama in the conference's elite NCAA softball champions club.
The Longhorn bats led the charge on Friday, plating five runs in the first inning — the most allowed in a single inning by Red Raiders superstar pitcher NiJaree Canady in her three-season NCAA career.
While that initial push ended up being enough to seal the win, senior third baseman Mia Scott put an exclamation mark on the victory by blasting a fourth-inning grand slam, notably doing so with a torn ACL.
2025 WCWS sets attendance, viewership records
The Longhorns' historic title run wasn't just a victory for Texas, however, as the 2025 WCWS claimed additional wins far beyond the Lone Star State.
With 119,778 fans packing into Oklahoma City's Devon Park across the nine-day competition, the 2025 tournament broke the WCWS attendance record.
The record-shattering didn't end there, as an average of 2.1 million viewers tuned into Thursday's championship series clash, making it the most-watched WCWS finals Game 2 in history — and the fifth most-watched NCAA softball game ever on ESPN platforms.
The rising value of college softball is also impacting players' bank accounts, with rising senior Canady reportedly inking a second seven-figure NIL deal to remain with Texas Tech prior to Friday's decisive Game 3.
"I've been around a lot of softball players, I've never been around a better teammate and a better person," Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco said about Canady following Friday's game. "She's an unbelievable talent. I believe she's the top player in college softball.... Her standards for everything is excellence."
The attendance, viewership, and NIL wins aren't just boosts for collegiate softball. The sport's rise is also fueling a new professional venture, with former NCAA stars launching pro league AUSL on Saturday — strategically timed to capitalize on the momentum of a historic 2025 WCWS.
WNBA action posed as many questions as answers last weekend, as perennial contenders like the Las Vegas Aces reckon with new challenges while rosters continue to gel.
The 2023 champions suffered a surprise 95-68 blowout loss to expansion side Golden State on Saturday, with the Valkyries stifling Las Vegas's star-studded offense.
Only two starting Aces cracked double-digit scoring: Reigning MVP A'ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray put up 17 and 16 points, respectively, though 2025 second-round draftee Aaliyah Nye impressed off the bench by adding 13 of her own.
Golden State, on the other hand, had a banner afternoon with three double-doubles among the Valkyries' five double-digit performers, led by forward Kayla Thornton's 22-point, 11-rebound outing.
"They outplayed us in every aspect of the game," said Aces head coach Becky Hammon after the loss. "Just really one of the worst games I've seen from us."
Gap widens between 2024 finalists and rest of the WNBA
Currently in fifth place in the WNBA standings, Las Vegas isn't the only team still searching for an identity in the 2025 season, as a clear divide is widening at the top of the league.
The still-undefeated 2024 WNBA finalists — the Minnesota Lynx and reigning champion New York Liberty — lead the pack by a growing margin, as the third-place Atlanta Dream sit a full three games behind the league leaders less than four weeks into the 2025 season.
Along with Las Vegas, the Phoenix Mercury, Seattle Storm, and Indiana Fever are all hanging tough with records at .500 or higher, though none are riding more than a two-game winning streak.
Despite setting a franchise attendance record of 19,496 fans at Chicago's famed United Center on Saturday, the Sky fell to an injury-laden Fever squad 79-52 to remain in 11th place in the standings.
Also struggling at the bottom of the table are the Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings. Along with the Sky, the WNBA weekend action has the trailing trio sitting multiple games below the 2025 playoff line.
How to watch Monday's WNBA action
Hoping to harness the momentum of their massive Saturday win, Golden State will travel to LA to take on the Sparks at 10 PM ET on Monday.
The game will stream live on WNBA League Pass.
Adding to their already historic season, 2024/25 WSL champions and 2025 League Cup winners Chelsea FC handed Manchester United a 3-0 defeat in Sunday's 2025 FA Cup final, completing the club's second-ever domestic treble.
Though the Blues first claimed an elusive treble in the 2020/21 season, this year's roster did so without dropping a single match in any of the three domestic competitions.
"I could not have expected this," said first-year Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor about her debut success leading the Blues. "It is almost ideal in terms of domestic dominance."
To clinch that dominance, Chelsea upended the defending FA Cup champs Manchester United at London's iconic Wembley Stadium behind a brace from French fullback Sandy Baltimore and a header from USWNT attacker Catarina Macario.
Baltimore gave Chelsea the lead by slipping a late first-half penalty past 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove winner and USWNT goalkeeper prospect Phallon Tullis-Joyce, and the Blues never relented, with second-half sub Macario doubling their scoreline in the 84th minute before Baltimore tacked on a final goal in stoppage time.
"It's a very emotional day," an emotional Macario told the broadcast after finishing her first season following a long ACL recovery. "It's a trophy we always wanted to win."
"All the credit to my players," said Bompastor. "We showed our mentality and our values in this game so we ended the season in an almost perfect scenario – we won, we were playing at Wembley, the stadium was nearly sold out, and we had a strong performance and result against a strong opponent."
"It is an almost ideal way to finish the season."
FA Cup crowds prove sustained demand for women's soccer
Chelsea FC's undefeated treble-winning season wasn't the only notable victory on Sunday, as the FA Cup final drew a crowd of over 74,000 fans for the third straight year.
Sunday's 74,412 attendance mark was just shy of both last year's crowd of 76,082 and the 77,390 fans who watched Chelsea defeat the Red Devils in 2023 — all well beyond the tournament final's previous record of 49,094 attendees achieved in 2022.
Fueled by the football fervor following England's 2022 Euro victory — the country's first international trophy, men's or women's, since the 1966 men's World Cup — the 2023 FA Cup final still stands as the largest crowd at a domestic women's soccer match across all nations.
With Sunday's match joining the over-74,000 attendance club, it's clear the post-Euros enthusiasm wasn't a blip, but a boost to the continued growth and sustained success of the women's game.
The USA Rugby women's 15s shattered the sport's US attendance record on Friday, welcoming 10,518 fans to Kansas City's CPKC Stadium for the Eagles' matchup against Canada.
Though the world No. 9 ranked US fell short in their come-from-behind push, falling 26-14 to No. 2 Canada in the opening game of the 2025 Pacific Four Series, Friday's crowd gave the players a massive off-field victory.
"To see the crowd be over 10,500 like that was absolutely fantastic in this women's purposely built stadium, and to debut rugby here in that stadium as well," said USA captain Kate Zackary after the game.
Even Canada's athletes lauded the significance of the record-setting crowd, despite the overwhelmingly US cheers from the home fans.
"Being here in North America and having 10,000 people coming to watch women's sports was so amazing," remarked Canada's Sarah-Maude Lachance.
Rugby's rise spurs exponential growth
After the Eagles secured Olympic bronze in rugby sevens last summer, the sport gained significant momentum.
The national attention captured by 2024 Olympians like superstar Ilona Maher earned USA Rugby a multimillion-dollar investment, helped fuel a new domestic league, and minted fresh fans en route to Friday's attendance record.
In the long-term, that growth could turn the US-hosted 2033 Rugby World Cup into a marquee national event.
For the rugby faithful, however, the biggest win is seeing those new to the sport become lifelong fans.
"Everyone I talked to after [Friday's] game who didn't know what rugby was, [I hope] has fallen in love with it," said Zachary.
How to attend the next USA Rugby game
The Eagles will take aim at breaking Friday's attendance record in Washington, DC, on July 19th, when they'll face No. 16 Fiji in a send-off game before August's 2025 Rugby World Cup in England.
Tickets to the Audi Field doubleheader, which also includes the US men's side against England, are available online now.
Stanford shattered the NCAA softball attendance record this weekend, welcoming 13,207 fans inside the university’s football stadium for Saturday's "Big Swing" game against Cal.
In the most-attended non-football contest in Stanford Athletics' history, the Cardinal softball crowd surpassed the sport's previous attendance record of 12,566, set on the first day of the 2024 Women's College World Series (WCWS) in Oklahoma City.
The history-making game also blew past the NCAA softball regular-season record of 9,259 fans, a feat reached less than two weeks ago when reigning champions Oklahoma defeated local rivals Oklahoma State on April 9th.
"It was kind of like a mini College World Series experience," Stanford junior outfielder Kyra Chan said after the game.
Despite dropping the record-breaking matchup 10-8 to their new ACC rivals, No. 16 Stanford ultimately secured the three-game series against the Golden Bears with wins on Thursday and Friday.
Friday's 9-3 victory was particularly impactful, clinching the Cardinal a spot in their first-ever ACC championship tournament next month — the first postseason stop as Stanford hunts a third-straight appearance in the WCWS semifinals.
Stanford softball fuels argument for larger women's sports venues
Softball isn't the only sport leading the recent surge in record-breaking NCAA women's sports crowds.
After shifting a volleyball match into its football stadium in August 2023, Nebraska welcomed not just the sport's biggest crowd, but the largest to ever attend any women's sporting event in the US.
Shortly thereafter, Iowa's "Crossover at Kinnick" blasted through the NCAA women's basketball attendance mark by moving an exhibition game featuring the Caitlin Clark-led Hawkeyes into the university's football venue.
Though the move to massive football stadiums was intentional to snag both Nebraska's and Iowa's respective records, Stanford's venue shift was not initially an attendance-hunting move.
The Cardinal's entire 2025 softball season is being played on the gridiron as the team's new $50 million stadium and state-of-the-art training facility is under construction.
Taking advantage of that added capacity was a no-brainer, with Stanford specifically branding and marketing their rivalry "Big Swing" game to capitalize on their temporary digs — and to continue making the overall case for expanding women's sports' venues.
"I think that you see a consistent theme that there aren't big enough venues for women's sports to be able to draw the fans that they can draw," Stanford softball head coach Jessica Allister pointed out.
"Hopefully, a lot of people who showed up to Stanford for the first time to watch a softball game will come back and see us in our beautiful stadium."
The USA skated to victory on Sunday, taking down archrival Canada in a 4-3 overtime thriller to earn the team's 11th IIHF Women’s World Championship title.
The US is now closing in on Canada's record 13 World Championship wins, setting the tone in the run-up to next year’s Winter Olympics as North America’s PWHL showcased its growing influence on the international stage.
After Canada equalized the second-period goals from US defender Caroline Harvey and forward Abbey Murphy — the potential No. 1 pick in June's 2025 PWHL Draft — the game's third period saw Team USA lose starting goaltender Aerin Frankel to injury.
Backup goalie and IIHF World Championship debutant Gwyneth Philips stepped in, seeing the USA to a back-and-forth 3-3 tie at the end of regulation.
Philips's 17 saves — including 10 in overtime — allowed US forward and current Penn State junior Tessa Janecke to play hero, with the 20-year-old capitalizing on a turnover by tapping in a golden goal with three minutes left in the first overtime period.
"Just shows how strong we are as a group and how much we can persevere through anything," Janecke said afterwards. "I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group."
The tournament itself also proved to be a success, setting a new IIHF Women’s World Championship attendance record as 122,331 total fans took in the games in Czechia.
"I think this is a watershed moment for women's hockey, and it's really exciting to be a part of," said US captain Hilary Knight after earning her 10th Worlds gold medal.
In a shifting hockey landscape, the USA-Canada rivalry is only becoming more intense — and the looming 2026 Olympics will provide yet another chance to steal the sport's global spotlight.