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A peak domestic UK TV audience of almost 8 million fans witnessed history at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, as Newcastle United broke a 70-year major domestic trophy wait to clinch the 2025 Carabao Cup, 2-1 over Liverpool.
Across Sky Sports Football, Sky Sports Main Event, ITV1 and ITVX an average domestic TV audience of 6.3 million viewers tuned in across the 90 minutes. Millions more watched around the globe, with the match shown across 193 international territories.
With Sky Sports and ITV announcing a joint broadcast arrangement of a select number of matches, commencing in January of this year – broadcasting one leg each of the Carabao Cup semi-final ties – the competition and EFL clubs have enjoyed increased exposure as a result.
This season’s impressive audience numbers have been driven by the ground-breaking partnership between the League and Sky Sports from the start of the 2024/25 season, with every match of the Carabao Cup broadcast live in the UK for the first time ever.
Fan attendance throughout this season’s competition was at its strongest ever, exemplified by the 88,513 supporters from Liverpool FC and Newcastle United who filled Wembley Stadium on Sunday – the highest attended fixture in Europe this weekend.
This season, almost 1.8 million supporters passed through the turnstiles, a 20% increase on total attendance figures from last season’s 2023/24 Carabao Cup competition.
EFL Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Birch, said: “The attendance and viewership numbers for Sunday’s Final demonstrate the continued popularity of the Carabao Cup, and the value the competition holds in the football calendar for supporters up and down the country and across the world.
“It was a fitting finale to a wonderful season of Carabao Cup football, and I’d like to thank each of Sky Sports, ITV and our international broadcast partners for making it such a success.”
Image: EFL
