Women’s World Cup opener breaks RTÉ streaming record for 2023

G'wan the girls in green.

Ireland's debut at the Women's World Cup yesterday took over our screens and even though it may not have been the outcome they hoped for, fans came out in force. Taking on Australia in their World Cup opener, the Girls in Green lost 1-0. They are next set to take on Canada on Wednesday at 1pm and then Nigeria the following Monday at 11am. With a strong sense of Irish support behind them in Sydney and across Australia, the same was felt in Ireland with almost a million people tuning into the match.

 

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According to RTÉ, live coverage of the game on RTÉ2 saw 511,000 people watching, with 360,000 people on the RTÉ Player. This is now the second highest streamed live sporting match ever on RTÉ Player, coming after the FIFA Men’s World Cup final in November 2022 with 490,000 streams. In a press release, RTÉ confirmed the opener was the most watched sports event of the year so far. A statement read: "Live coverage of the match generated 360,000 live streams on RTÉ Player with viewers watching from across the nation. "This morning the Republic of Ireland team kicked off their FIFA Women’s World Cup debut against Australia to a sell out crowd in the Accor Stadium in Sydney with hundreds of thousands watching from all around the world". This article originally appeared on her.ie  Header image via Getty  READ NEXT:  - Ireland’s top 10 breakfast and brunch spots revealed - 5 of the best road-trip routes around Ireland