Not simply because of the raw viewing figures — record audiences in England and France and Brazil and almost everywhere else, with a new bar being set seemingly every few days — but because of the way in which the World Cup’s players seemed to permeate the consciousness of those watching at home. The interest was not rooted in idle curiosity or reflexive patriotism but in a slow-burn bond with the characters themselves.

Ellen White, the England striker, has been greeted by strangers in supermarkets mimicking the “goggles” celebration she performed after each of her six goals in France. There is always a boost after a major tournament, but it felt, this time, as if people were paying attention.

The W.S.L., certainly, did not want to waste that. Its opening weekend was deliberately timed to coincide with an international break in the men’s calendar, so as not to have to compete with the asphyxiating, all-consuming attention-seeking of the Premier League. Manchester City and Chelsea both switched their matches away from the women’s teams’ normal homes — the Academy, in Manchester, and Kingsmeadow, in Kingston, in London’s never-ending suburbs — to rather grander stages: the Etihad and Stamford Bridge.

The response was almost overwhelming. Late last week, City said that about 20,000 people had bought tickets for the derby — priced at less than $10 for adults, and nothing for children — while Chelsea, after making the decision to make all tickets free, said that 40,000 had been claimed.