Women's Euro 2022: Attendance record broken with 15 games left as France beats Belgium 2-1

By Ben Morse, CNN

Updated 0829 GMT (1629 HKT) July 15, 2022

Belgium's Tessa Wullaert runs at France's Wendie Renard.

(CNN)The overall attendance record for the Women's European Championship has been broken by the 2022 edition — and there's still 15 games to go.

The 8,173 people who attended France's 2-1 victory over Belgium at the New York Stadium in Rotherham on Thursday took the overall attendance for the Women's Euro 2022 to 248,075. That surpasses the previous record of 240,055 set at the 2017 finals in the Netherlands — and we're still only in the group stages. Across the first 16 games of Euro 2022, the average attendance has been 15,505. Supporters of France celebrate after Les Bleues scores against Belgium.The tournament began at a record-setting pace, beating the single-game attendance record for the competition in the very first game: 68,871 fans watched host England beat Austria in the opener at Old Trafford in Manchester.Read MoreThe previous biggest crowd was 41,301 when Germany beat Norway in the final of Euro 2013 in Sweden. It also surpassed the record for a group game at a Women's European Championship group game as the previous record was 29,092 in England's 3-2 victory over Finland at the City of Manchester Stadium in 2005.READ: Matches at a 4,700-seat stadium — are UEFA and the FA underselling women's football?And despite the record only just being broken, it is likely to be surpassed again at this tournament alone, with the final at Wembley Stadium — which has a capacity of 90,000 — on July 31. The crowd celebrating an England goal against Norway.The record for the highest attendance for a game not involving the host, other than a final, has been broke twice already in the last few weeks. First,