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Data: Summer of sport drives readership surge for UK publications

August 12, 2025

A busy summer of sport is generating a surge of readership for UK media outlets, according to data from Taboola, with TV and digital audience figures for major events also breaking previous records.

Wimbledon netted the top spot as this summer’s most read about sporting event, with articles around the tournament receiving 35 million page views over the past few months. Wimbledon also attracted a record breaking 69.3 million online requests for BBC Sport during the two-week event – the highest ever digital engagement for the championships on record.

Stories about the FIFA Club World Cup received ten million page views across Taboola’s publisher network, while the UEFA Women’s Euros earned 6.5 million page views. BBC Sport’s live broadcast of England’s victory in the Women’s Euros final achieved a peak live audience of 12.2 million and became the most watched television moment of 2025 across all UK channels.

Taboola’s data shows that other major summer sporting events across rugby, horseracing, cricket, golf and F1 have generated high readership interest. The top eight summer sporting events ranked by article readership are:
1)        Wimbledon (Tennis) – 35 million page views
2)        FIFA Club World Cup (Football) – 10 million page views
3)        UEFA Women’s Euro (Football) – 9.9m page views
4)        British & Irish Lions (Rugby) – 9 million page views
5)        Royal Ascot (Horseracing) – 3.3m page views
6)        England v India (Cricket) – 1.3m page views
7)    The Open Championship (Golf) – 1.2m page views. The tournament, broadcast by Sky Sports, was the channel’s most watched British Open, with 21.2 million viewer hours over the four days.
8)        British GP (Formula One) – 415k page views

Female British sportspeople have been particularly popular with UK readers this summer. While the men’s Wimbledon finalists Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were two of the most read about players, with 5.9 million and 6.2 million page views respectively, British women’s player Emma Raducanu earned a significantly higher 7.8 million pag0 eviews. In football, forward Chloe Kelly has been the most talked about player on the England women’s team, with 1.5 million page views.

Other British sportspeople with high readership interest included:
  • Trent Alexander-Arnold (England Football, Real Madrid) – 3.6 million page views
  • Lewis Hamilton (F1 driver) – 3.2 million page views
  • Eberechi Eze (England Football, Crystal Palace) – 2.5 million page views
  • Andy Farrell (Lions Rugby coach) – 2.1 million page views
Dave Struzzi, Director of Public Relations at Taboola, commented: “With record-breaking TV audiences and some famous wins for England and Britain, publishers have been able to effectively capitalise on a bonanza of summer sport. Huge readership figures for England’s Lionesses, alongside growing interest in the Women’s Rugby World Cup later this summer, reflects the surging popularity of women’s sport among the general population – something that publications should certainly bear in mind when thinking about their editorial focus.”

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Content, Research

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