On the day of the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 semi-finals, figures released by the EHF show how the championship has caught the imagination of millions of fans across the globe.

Television numbers show that live games have been a hit, especially those watching in Denmark, with a 72 per cent market share watching the Danes’ win over Croatia in the main round. Germany’s matches have also been popular, with a peak 5.1 million tuning into watch their match against Austria.

The drama and excitement of the competition has been hugely popular on the digital channels of the EHF, the competing teams and stakeholders with over 200 million people reached on digital platforms alone.

The Home of Handball App, the EHF’s official mobile application, saw its 50,000th download recorded during the tournament – with 5,000 of those coming on the day the All-star Team vote was launched.

On social media, the success story has come via TikTok, which comes in the wake of a partnership which was signed prior to the championship. The EHF’s Home of Handball account has added 80,000 new followers to total 262,000 people. For the first time, a handball match was streamed live on the social media network with 135,000 unique viewers tuning into re-watch a classic match from the Men’s EHF EURO 2020. A second, screened on 27 January, attracted a quarter-of-a-million viewers.

Views on the EHF’s OTT-platform EHFTV have hit the one million barrier, with over 400,000 users tuning into watch live matches, highlights and features. In total over nine million minutes of video has been watched since the turn of the year on EHFTV.

With more than one million users accessing eurohandball.com and almost 8,000 readers subscribing to a dedicated daily EHF EURO newsletter, the EHF’s editorial output during the championship continues to be favourable with supporters.

EHF Secretary General Martin Hausleitner said: “We are hugely encouraged by these figures which one again prove that the popularity of handball is growing. The Men’s EHF EURO is the crown jewel in national team competitions, and it is heartening to see the appetite of fans consuming content in various digital means.

“After a successful preliminary and main round, we are now looking forward to building on these numbers for the final five matches of the competition, cumulating in the final on Sunday.”

The Men’s EHF EURO 2022 continues on Friday with the two semi-finals in Budapest, beginning with reigning champions against Denmark at 18:00 CET before 2020 Olympic gold medalists France face Sweden at 20:30 CET.