Almost two million fans attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand – up by more than 600,000 on the previous record.

The tournament, which Spain won for the first time, expanded to 64 games compared to 52 four years ago.

However, the average attendance was 30,911 – up from 21,756 at the 2019 World Cup in France.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino had set a target of 1.5m ticket sales for 2023.

The ninth edition, featuring 32 nations for the first time, exceeded expectations, according to Fifa chief women’s football officer Sarai Bareman.

“This momentum is unstoppable,” she said. “The numbers and data and everything about this World Cup has eclipsed 2019.

“Over the past few weeks weeks we have witnessed record-breaking crowds, significant global broadcast audiences and staggering digital metrics, highlighting the truly global impact of this ground-breaking event.”

Just short of two million fans

In total, 1,978,274 fans watched the games inside 10 stadiums in Australia and New Zealand between 20 July and 20 August.

The previous record aggregate attendance was set in 2015 when 1,353,506 people watched 52 matches in Canada.

The 2019 edition was watched by 1,131,312 supporters.

Sunday’s final between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney, which Spain won 1-0, attracted a sell-out crowd of 75,784.

Records shattered in New Zealand

More than 700,000 fans watched 29 World Cup matches in New Zealand.

Before the World Cup, the record crowd for a football match in New Zealand was 37,034 for a men’s World Cup play-off against Peru in Wellington in 2017.

Despite early concerns about ticket sales, that record was shattered three times at Eden Park, Auckland.

“The atmosphere at Eden Park has been electric, with colour and culture celebrated through the beautiful game,” said Nick Sautner, chief executive of Eden Park.

The Wellington Regional Stadium hosted nine matches in New Zealand’s capital.

“I was in the stands when Japan scored their third goal against Norway,” said Shane Harmon, chief executive of Wellington Regional Stadium.

“It may as well have been New Zealand playing given the roar from the crowd. The fans have been fantastic.”

World Cup of big crowds

Stadium Australia was used five times at the tournament and hosted an aggregate 378,920 fans, with sell-out crowds at all the games staged there.

Ten of the 64 matches attracted crowds of 45,000-plus.

“Fifa’s original sales target for Australia and New Zealand was 1.3m,” said a Fifa spokesperson.

“This was adjusted to 1.5m, which was surpassed.”