For football fans who believe that nothing beats the stadium experience, here’s scientific proof — from their heart rates.
Researchers in Germany have found that people who watched a big football match at a stadium had an average heart rate of 94 beats per minute (bpm) compared with 79 bpm for those watching on television. Somewhat puzzlingly, it’s further down — 73 bpm — for those watching on-screen at public gatherings.
The study, published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, provides fresh insights into how match context, viewing environment and alcohol consumption can influence physiological stress in fans.
“The atmosphere in the stadium is far more intense than in other viewing settings. Public screenings typically involve far fewer people than the (tens of thousands in the) stadium, and the emotional ‘contagion’ of a packed crowd is hard to replicate elsewhere,” Christiane Fuchs, professor of data science at Bielefeld University who led the study, told The Telegraph.
“At the same time, some fans actually prefer watching at home because they have a clearer view of the game on TV. Differences in crowd size, immersion, and viewing quality may help explain the unexpected results.”
Over a 12-week study period, match days stood out as the most exceptional days in terms of increased heart rates.
“This was a striking finding — we did not expect match days to stand out so clearly from non-match days,” Fuchs told this newspaper.
The differences in the heart rates between match days and non-match days show how strongly fans’ physiological responses correlate with what happens on the field. During intense passages of play, the heart rate rises noticeably. Once the outcome has emerged, it returns to baseline.
“We believe this pattern is not unique to our sample; fans of many sports are emotionally attached to game action,” Fuchs said.
“Future work could quantify how closely fans’ physiological responses mirror in-game dynamics and identify specific situations such as decisive moments that consistently trigger the strongest reactions.”
Using the 2025 German Cup final as an opportunity for a natural experiment, the researchers measured heart rates and heart variability through smart-watches worn by 229 fans who had volunteered for the study.
They recorded the measurements from 10 days before the match up to several days after the match. All the volunteers had self-identified as fans of Arminia Bielefeld, the club that lost the final 2-4.
Winners VfB Stuttgart scored thrice between the 15th and 28th minutes and added a fourth midway in the second half before Arminia scored two late goals to cause a mild flutter.
The researchers found that the fans’ heart rates were highest during the first 15 minutes of the match, with the average reaching up to about 96 bpm. After each goal scored by the opposing team, they observed an average fall in the heart rate to below 90 bpm.
On average, the heart rates of the stadium spectators were 23 per cent higher than those of fans watching from elsewhere. After a goal by Arminia, this difference increased to nearly 36 per cent, with average heart rates of 108 bpm in the stadium.
Alcohol, too, influenced heart rates. The average heart rate of spectators who drank alcohol was on average five per cent higher throughout the match, seven per cent higher during the second half, and 12 per cent higher after Arminia’s first goal.
Elevated heart rates in combination with alcohol are known to increase the risk of arrhythmias — irregular heart beats — and other cardiac events that might be relevant during high-stress sports events.
Studies had over the past decade recorded increases in spectators’ heart rate, blood pressure and stress hormones during high-stakes football matches. Some studies have also suggested that unexpected outcomes can have adverse cardiovascular effects.
Cardiologist Miguel Maturana and his colleagues in the US had, reviewing the subject in a 2021 scientific paper, written that “half-hearted” spectatorship may be better for cardiovascular health than fanatical spectatorship.
Fuchs said the novelty of the new study lay in tracking sports’ fans heart rates during their everyday lives and comparing them with those on match days. “This design allowed us to isolate and quantify the additional physiological impact of watching sport relative to typical daily life,” she said.