Spain emerged champions of the 2023 Women’s World Cup after edging England 1-0 at the Stadium Australia in Sydney where the final was played on Sunday. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand may have come and gone, but it’s memories lingers.
The storylines in this edition according to FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, are many. All teams across the participating continents recorded a win for the first time in the tournament. According to Infantino, even teams that have not qualified for the last 16 have created history.
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“We have seen a record number of goals, a record number of spectators, a record number of viewers from all over the world. These are all the ingredients you need for such a tournament, and added to that, it’s joy, it’s passion, it’s heart, it’s great games and it excites all the emotions,” FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, said on his Instagram handle @ gianni_infantino, disclosing that this FIFA Women’s World Cup has been simply unique.
Teams from five continents qualified for the Round of 16, with some debutants like Morocco and Jamaica also making the last 16.
“Thank you New Zealand for breaking records right from the opening game, and then right to the end of the group stage, when Korea Republic – who were on the edge of elimination from the tournament – played a crucial part in determining the qualification path,” Infantino said.
Following the conclusion of the competition on Sunday, we take a look at some of the key figures that made the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup unique being the first to be hosted across two continents:
Six confederations
The 2023 finals have seen teams from all six Confederations win a match for the first time in a FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament.
53.9 million Chinese fans
China PR produced the highest audience for a single match anywhere in the world with 53.9 million viewers watching their team take on England.
22million unique users
Traffic in the first 15 days has already surpassed the entirety of the 2019 tournament, welcoming 22 million unique users, with an average of 2.4 million users visiting FIFA Women’s World Cup channels daily.
2.84 million spectators for Colombia’s first match
Colombia’s first group match tripled the highest television audience from the previous FIFA Women’s World Cup (2.84 million) and even eclipsed all audiences from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, except for the final.
Oceania’s first win
When New Zealand defeated 1995 winners Norway in Match 1, an Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) representative won a match for the first time in FIFA Women’s World Cup history.
Nigeria’s first for Africa
Nigeria are the first African nation to complete a group campaign in the FWWC without losing a match.
Morocco became the first African team to win two successive FIFA Women’s World Cup matches, and the first to keep successive clean sheets.
There are three representatives from Africa in the knockout stage for the first time – Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. The only other time there was more than one was in 2019 when Cameroon and Nigeria reached the knockout stage.
First ever group wins
Australia, Colombia, and Switzerland won their group for the first time.
Colombia became just the second South American team to win a group in FIFA Women’s World Cup history, after Brazil.
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Only one of the four former winners (Germany, Japan, Norway and USA) won their group – Japan won Group C, Norway and the USA came second, and Germany finished third.
New Zealand, Philippines, Zambia, Portugal, Jamaica, South Africa, and Morocco each registered their first win (or wins) at a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
1000th goal
Barbra Banda (Zambia) scored the 1,000th goal in FIFA Women’s World Cup history against Costa Rica.
Debutantes Portugal became the only second team to stop USA scoring in 27 Group Stage matches after Sweden in 2015 held them to a goalless draw.
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Only three teams went through the Group Stage without conceding a single goal – Jamaica, Japan and Switzerland.
Brazil had scored in 23 successive group-stage matches until Jamaica held them without scoring to eliminate them – the first time Brazil had not scored in a group match since 1991 against Sweden.
Jamaica became just the third team from CONCACAF to qualify for the knockout stage in FIFA Women’s World Cup history following USA and Canada.
