Beach Handball and Women’s 19 EHF EURO reach millions on social

The major stars of European indoor handball may have just returned to training after a deserved summer break, however there is no shortage of the sport as beach handball and the European Handball Federation’s (EHF) younger age category tournaments attract the attention of millions of fans.

The men’s and women’s EHF Beach Handball EURO, which was played in Alanya, Türkiye, from 8 – 13 July, proved a hit on social with the official @ehfbeachhandball Instagram account delivering a performance normally reserved for much larger sport platforms.

Between 1 to 20 July, one week before and after the final tournament, total video plays amounted to 19 million and 4.6 million accounts were reached.

76% of those video plays came from non-followers, confirming a discoverability of the sport beyond the existing fan base.

Overall reach averaged at 180,000 unique users per day, peaking above 1 million on tournament match days.

Follower momentum accelerated sharply, with more than 4,700 new fans joining the account within three weeks, bringing the total community to close to 35,000.

With more than 50% of that audience being between 18 and 34 years of age and 17% even younger, there are strong indicators that beach handball is highly attractive among new generations.

The Men’s EHF Beach Handball EURO was won by Germany while Spain celebrated their first European title in the women’s event.

Women’s 19 EHF EURO surpasses numbers of men’s event in 2024  

Indoors, the Women’s 19 EHF EURO, played in Montenegro from 9 to 20 July, delivered an equally strong digital performance with total numbers surpassing those of the Men’s 20 EHF EURO 2024, played the previous year in Slovenia.

More than 300 content pieces were published on the EHF EURO channel ecosystem (Instagram, Tiktok Facebook, Youtube, and X), generating 26.7 million video views and more than 900,000 interactions.

The EHF EURO Facebook page performed particularly strong, with more than 130 content pieces being watched almost 12 million times.

Content released on TikTok also caught the attention of millions, with one single video alone being watched 3.8 million times

Thomas Schöneich, EHF Director Media and Communications, said: "We are very pleased that our digital strategy for these events with a strong focus on delivering high-quality short-form content paid off. This is momentum that we can build on and carry further, as the summer continues and we are preparing for the throw-off of the club handball season at the end of August."

The growing attractiveness of the EHF’s younger age category events was further underlined earlier in July with the federation signing a long-term TV deal with AMC Networks International – Central and Northern Europe for the exclusive broadcast of the youth national team competitions in Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia.

The Women’s 19 EHF EURO was won by Germany following a 34:27 victory in the final against Spain.

The European handball summer continues with men’s and women’s competitions at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Skopje, North Macedonia, with the semi-finals and finals played on 25 and 26 July.

It concludes with the Women’s 17 EHF EURO from 30 July to 10 August in Montenegro and the corresponding Women’s 17 EHF Championship in Kosovo. 

All matches are streamed live on EHFTV.