What has been average attendance at Rugby World Cup games?

World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont has hailed the pool stage of Rugby World Cup 2023 as showing “the best of friendship, France and rugby” and vowed to facilitate greater opportunity for performance unions to close the competition gap.

Across 40 matches, 20 teams played in nine venues the length and breadth of France, captivating audiences and capturing hearts and minds as the country united behind the tournament.

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On the field, history was made as Chile made their debut and Portugal claimed their first-ever victory, while Fiji qualified for their first quarter-final in 16 years to set the tournament alight.

With a mantra of ‘rugby’s ultimate celebration of togetherness’, the world has engaged in-stadia, in rugby villages, in living rooms, cafés, bars and online in record numbers.

“France 2023 has captured the imagination and warmed hearts the length and breadth of this rugby-loving nation.” said Beaumont. 

“With an average attendance of 47,000 across the nine beautiful stadiums, more than a million fans mixing in rugby villages and an unprecedented social footprint of almost one billion fans, this is shaping up to be the social Rugby World Cup.”

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Other Rugby World Cup records

Rugby Village attendance at Rugby World Cup 2023 has already surpassed the record set in Japan four years ago as France 2023 continues to smash records, tournament organisers have announced.

Some 1.16 million people have now visited the 10 official Rugby Villages the length and breadth of the host nation, surpassing the 1.13 million set at Rugby World Cup 2019.

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With eight knock-out matches left to be played, France 2023 is poised to break the 1.5 million milestone, a figure that reflects the enormous passion for the tournament, rugby’s greatest celebration of togetherness.

Meanwhile, match attendance has reached 1.8 million, surpassing the 1.7 million total for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.

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Fans have descended on France from all corners of the world with the Netherlands and Germany among the top 10 nations in the ticket purchasing rankings, while fans from debutants Chile, 2007 returnees Portugal and 2019 hosts Japan have all added to the special atmosphere.

Record Rugby Village and stadia attendance builds on the wider success of the tournament with cumulative match attendance of almost two million and on target to set a new overall record.

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Broadcast and social powerhouse

Broadcast ratings in France also reflect the ‘rugby buzz’ sweeping the nation with a total cumulative audience of more than 164.5 million (more than the total French audience for RWC 2019) and matches involving the host nation rated the most viewed programmes of 2023 on TF1.

Meanwhile, the tournament is attracting a whole new generation of fans. Launched a week prior to the tournament, the official fantasy game is being played by more than 500,000 people.

In addition, official social media accounts have attracted 1.8 million new followers with more than a third from Spanish-speaking nations and 400,000 from USA, highlighting the rapid growth in fans across the Americas in particular in recent years. More than 1.1 billion views of Rugby World Cup content have been achieved so far, thanks to collaboration between World Rugby and the teams.

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