Social Scores among Female Women’s World Cup Fans

The quarter finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup have arrived. While female followers are largely watching the soccer games on TV, social networks are likely playing a key role in keeping these fans in the know.

According to June 2015 polling by product discovery and reviews platform Influenster, seven in 10 US female internet users who planned to watch the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup intended to do so on cable at their house. Three in 10 planned to head to a bar or restaurant for viewing, while 21.2% said they would watch on cable at a friend’s house; 18.4% intended to stream via computer.

However, it’s unlikely these followers will be plopped down in front of the TV all day, and for on-the-go female fans, social networks will be top of mind. When asked about the ways in which they planned to follow the tournament, more than six in 10 female followers intended to rely on social networks. This was higher than any other response—and beat No. 2 TV by 14.1 percentage points.

Those social-loving female World Cup followers are most likely using Facebook to stay in the know. Nearly three-quarters (72.9%) of respondents said they used Facebook to follow sports news. Twitter was also cited by the majority (52.5%), with photo- and video-sharing service Instagram rounding out the top three, at 47.3%. Just 11.4% of respondents didn’t use social media for sports news updates.

Polling conducted in 2014 by Catalyst queried US internet users who engaged with sports-related content via social media sites and found that the leading types of content they interacted with included game highlights and scores/stats, each cited by 86% of respondents. Excitement pre- and post-game as well as player stats also ranked highly.

Courtesy of eMarketer