England semi-final packed pubs and lit up phones, WiFi data shows
Purple says pub visitors jumped 316% at the 7pm peak as fans filled venues, logged on at half-time and hit sports and gambling sites.
By Deshawn Carter · Sports Writer
2 min read
England’s World Cup semi-final defeat still gave pubs a serious midweek lift, with visitor numbers at participating venues up 316% at the 7pm peak, according to anonymised guest WiFi data released by Purple.
The guest WiFi provider analysed activity across its UK pub venues on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, and compared it with a similar non-match Wednesday. The picture was clear: a normal midweek evening turned into a busy live-sport night, with fans arriving early, logging on and using their phones through the match.
Across the full day, visitors were up 82%. From 5pm onwards, footfall rose 150%, and between 7pm and 8pm, the hour before kick-off, pubs in the data set recorded 316% more visitors than the comparison Wednesday.
The phone rush came with the pints. WiFi logins increased 54% across the day and 140% after 5pm. At half-time, logins doubled in 15 minutes as fans pulled out their mobiles during the break.
Younger drinkers drove much of the surge. Purple’s figures show visitors aged 18 to 24 were up 199%, while those aged 25 to 34 rose 115%. The over-65 group was almost flat by comparison, rising 5%.
The crowd also skewed more strongly female than the usual midweek benchmark. Female visitors were up 91% across the day, compared with an 80% rise for men. After 5pm, women’s attendance climbed 140%, while men’s attendance was up 121%.
The match was also a second-screen event. Requests to sports websites across Purple’s network rose 592%, while media-sharing traffic was up 246% and social-network requests climbed 177%. Requests to gambling websites rose 470%.
Those web category figures came from Purple Shield, the company’s content-filtering product. The company says venues using the product can choose to block gambling websites through a single setting.
Gavin Wheeldon, Purple’s chief executive, said the data showed what a major fixture can do for hospitality “hour by hour,” turning a midweek semi-final into a crowd more associated with a Friday night.
Wheeldon said venues that captured guests through WiFi now had contact details and marketing opt-ins that could be used to encourage return visits for future fixtures.
For pubs, the figures point to the pulling power of live sport at a time when midweek trade remains difficult. Big matches can bring in people who might otherwise stay home, especially younger fans watching the game with one eye on the screen and the other on their phone.
The company said the UK pub WiFi data was aggregated and anonymised. Purple said no individual browsing was identified, and that peak-hour figures refer to the 7pm to 8pm window.