A number of records were broken during the event, which culminated with a win for tournament favourites New Zealand over Australia last Saturday (October 31).
England Rugby 2015 generated over £250 million in ticket revenues, delivering an £80 million surplus to World Rugby and a £15 million surplus to the RFU, which is to be invested in the sport’s development.
Total ticket sales topped 2.47 million, the official fanzone attendance went past one million and Wembley Stadium recorded two consecutive Rugby World Cup attendance records – 89,019 for New Zealand vs Argentina, followed by 89,267 for Ireland vs Romania.
World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset says: “Rugby World Cup 2015 will be remembered as the biggest tournament to date, but I also believe that it will be remembered as the best.
“England 2015 has been the most competitive, best attended, most watched, most socially engaged, most commercially successful Rugby World Cup.
“But this special Rugby World Cup has been about much more than numbers – it has been about the amazing atmosphere in full and vibrant stadia, the excitement around the host nation and in Cardiff, the unforgettable moments played out by the world’s best players and the friendships that have been created along the way.
“The very best of our sport has been on display.”
Other stats from the tournament include:
• An estimated 460,000 fans travelled from overseas to watch the matches.
• An estimated audience of 120 million watched the final on TV.
• The tournament’s viewing figures included a record TV audience of 25 million in Japan to watch the match against Samoa and 11.6 million viewers for England vs Wales on ITV – the largest rugby audience in the UK since the 2007 final and the highest peak audience for a sporting event since the 2014 Football World Cup.
• Social media activity exceeding the whole of New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup 2011 during the 2015 pool stages.
• Throughout the tournament, #RWC2015 was used twice a second for the duration of the event and over five million times in total.
• There were over 270 million video views on all social media channels.
• The RWC 2015 website attracted 25 million unique users.
• The official tournament app was downloaded 2.8 million times, with use in 204 nations.
• The Festival of Rugby 2015, a series of approximately 1,000 events that took place between June 10-October 31, attracted over one million people.
