England's semi-final sent pub footfall up 316% at its peak, guest WiFi data reveals

Half-time doubled WiFi logins in 15 minutes, 18-24s turned out in record numbers, and traffic to sports websites rose 592% as fans second-screened the match

Manchester, LANCS, July 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- England's World Cup semi-final defeat may have broken hearts, but new data from guest WiFi provider Purple shows it filled pubs on a scale no ordinary midweek could match.

Pub WiFi log ins were up 140%

Analysing anonymised guest WiFi activity across its UK pub venues on Wednesday 15 July, benchmarked against a comparable Wednesday, Purple found: 

• Visitors were up 82% across the day - and up 150% from 5pm onwards. At the 7pm peak, as fans settled in an hour before kick-off, venues saw 316% more visitors than a normal Wednesday. 
• WiFi logins rose 54% across the day, and 140% from 5pm. At half-time, logins doubled in 15 minutes as phones came out with the refills. 
• Young adults drove the surge. Visitors aged 18-24 were up 199% and 25-34s up 115%, while the over-65s rose just 5%. 
• Women out-turned-out men. Female visitors were up 91% across the day against 80% for men - and up 140% from 5pm, against 121%. 
• The second screen was busy. Requests to sports websites across Purple's network rose 592%, media sharing 246% and social networks 177%. Requests to gambling websites rose 470% - a category venues using Purple's Shield filtering product can choose to block at a single setting. 

"Everyone talks about big matches being good for hospitality, but this is what it actually looks like, hour by hour," said Gavin Wheeldon, CEO, Purple. "A midweek semi-final delivered a Friday-night crowd with a Wednesday cost base - younger, more balanced between men and women, and full of first-time visitors. The venues that captured that crowd on their WiFi now have the contact details and marketing opt-ins to bring them back for the next fixture. The ones that didn't just watched thousands of new customers walk out at full-time." 

The findings underline the commercial value of live sport for the on-trade at a time when midweek footfall remains under pressure, and the role of connected-venue technology in converting one-off event crowds into returning customers. 

Methodology: Figures compare anonymised, aggregated guest WiFi activity across Purple's UK pub venues on Wednesday 15 July 2026 with a comparable non-match Wednesday. Peak-hour figures refer to the 7pm-8pm window. Web category data is drawn from Purple Shield, Purple's content-filtering product, at network level; no individual browsing is identified.

About Purple

Purple is the leading global connectivity platform that has built the world's largest public WiFi network. Their mission is to make WiFi a secure, seamless, and ever-present utility for everyone, everywhere. A global force with a presence in 89 countries, the platform is a powerful network that serves nearly 500 million users across 80,000 venues, with automatic, secure access to over 5 million hotspots through the Purple app.

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