Astonishing TV figures, as handball-mania took over the world at the 2025 IHF Men's World Championship

The 29th IHF Men’s World Championship has been a resounding success both in terms of the number of spectators present in the five arenas which hosted the competition, as well as in terms of TV viewership, with the business end of Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025 providing huge numbers in key markets around the world.

Denmark, a hotbed for handball, has seen a gigantic market share in their matches throughout the whole competition, with the numbers charting fantastically, especially in the final, which was broadcasted on two channels, DR and TV2 Denmark.

2,115,540 spectators watched the final, where Denmark secured their fourth consecutive world title, with their win against Croatia, as 1,179,740 person tuned in for TV2 and 935,800 spectators watched the DR coverage. It added up to a share of an incredible 91.7% share, with nearly all people tuned in to the TV in Denmark at the hour of the final watching the match.

In total, in Denmark, 15 of the 17 most viewed programs on Danish TV were handball matches or coverage of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, with two other programmes placing ninth and 12th in the ratings.

Fabulous numbers were also achieved in the semi-final against Portugal, with 1.7 million people tuning in, while the celebration of the title in Copenhagen drew another 400,000 people on TV2 Denmark’s coverage.

Three other matches played by Denmark – the quarter-final against Brazil (81%) and the main round matches against Switzerland (80%) and Germany (75%) had more than 1,400,000 viewers in the Scandinavian country, with the market share seeing more than four in five households tuning in.

The final of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship also provided a fantastic audience in Croatia, where the match between Croatia and Denmark was broadcasted on RTL. The last act of Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025 had a 73.4% market share, which means that nearly four of five TV sets opened on Sunday, 2 February, in Croatia, were tuned in for the match.

The coverage of the Croatia’s homecoming in Zagreb also drew a fantastic share in the co-host country of the competition, with an incredible 49.9% market share, with half of the Croatian public watching the live feed from Zagreb.

The excellent RTL coverage also brought in fantastic numbers in the quarter-final against Hungary, which was played in the Arena Zagreb, with a 65% market share and over 1,350,000 viewers for that match. The semi-final against France also had a 70% market share and handball was, by far, the most watched programme in Croatia in 2025.

Another key market for handball is Germany and the numbers there have also been impressive. The quarter-final between Germany and Portugal has been watched by an average of 7,080,000 viewers, exceeding the previous record set for an IHF Men’s World Championship match by over 500,000 viewers.

The key factor was the buying in of the share of viewers aged between 14 to 49 years old, who tuned in for the match, with an impressive 31.7% market share, roughly one in three viewers watching the match.
 
Also in Germany, the final between Denmark and Croatia was broadcasted by Eurosport1. The live broadcast was a complete success for the broadcaster, even without Germany taking part, as an average of 1.01 million viewers watched the Denmark’s winy against Croatia, meaning the market share of the overall audience was a very good 4.8 percent. It went even better among 14 to 49-year-old segment, where 320,000 fans ensured an outstanding 8.0%. By comparison: the broadcaster’s average is well under 1% in any given Sunday.

The numbers were also excellent in Sweden, where the market share of the matches played by the Scandinavian side was between 25 and 30%, while in Norway, the match pitting the co-hosts and Portugal seeing a 40.5% market at its peak, with over 450,000 people tuning in for that match.

1,100,000 people watched the end of the match between France and Egypt on TFX, with Luka Karabatic sealing a buzzer-beater win for France, while 1,060,000 viewers chose to watch the semi-final between France and Croatia, for an excellent 5,8% market share in France.

In Portugal, handball-mania took over after the team secured their best-ever finish at the IHF Men’s World Championship, the fourth place. During the quarter-final against Germany, RTP 2, the state broadcaster, had a 6% market share, despite two of the biggest football teams in Portugal, Sporting and Benfica, played in the UEFA Champions League.

It was the most viewed programme on RTP 2 in 11 years and that prompted the Portuguese television to broadcast the semi-final against Denmark and the bronze medal match against France on RTP 1.

Moreover, in Iceland, the match against Cuba, which was broadcasted by RÚV, saw an otherworldly 98.3% market share, which means that virtually every TV in Iceland was tuned in for the national team match.