Rugby World Cup host nation France’s championship dream ended at the quarter-final stage at the weekend with defeat to South Africa, the current world champions.

The thrilling match between the two sides capped a fabulous weekend of rugby union as Argentina, New Zealand and England progressed to the semi finals, while Wales, Fija and Ireland all crashed out.

Quarter finals drive rucking huge Rugby growth 

• 10.3m page views: Last week, the four quarter finals at the Rugby World Cup in France drove engagement with our Rugby content to record levels. More than 10.3m weekly page views increased +31% week on week, with the prior week being a rest week for the remaining teams.

• 2.9x higher: Since the week of the tournament’s opening match between France and New Zealand on Friday, 8 September, weekly Rugby page views have been 2.9x higher than the 2023 average. Weekly page view are +118% compared to the Six Nations earlier this year.

• 11% of all Sport page views: Across the tournament, more than 10% of all engagement with our Sport category has been for Rugby content, which is 2.4x higher than we’ve typically seen this year. Last week, Rugby accounted for 14% of Sport engagement, up +39% week on week.

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