The Serpent, Bloodlands and Line of Duty helped the BBC iPlayer reach its strongest quarter on record, with 1.7 billion streams requested in the first three months of 2021.
The BBC’s streaming service grew 22% on the same period last year. 10th January 2021 became the iPlayer’s biggest day, with 26 million streams, helped by coverage of the third round of the FA Cup.
The first episode of enthralling crime thriller The Serpent is iPlayer’s biggest episode of the year so far, having been streamed a massive 6 million times. The full series was streamed a total of 33 million times between January and March on iPlayer.
The latest (sixth) series of Line of Duty also proved popular, as the first episode of AC-12’s latest case saw over 3.6 million streams in just 11 days up to the end of March. The previous series have also performed strongly on iPlayer, with the Line of Duty box set streamed 35 million times in the first three months of the year. With nearly 10 million tuning in last Sunday on BBC One, the series is in line to break further records for the BBC in the current quarter.
Also popular was the first episode of crime thriller Bloodlands, the new series produced by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and based in County Down in Northern Ireland.
iPlayer Top 10: Jan-Mar 2021
| Rank | Programme | Series/Episode | Streams |
| 1 | The Serpent | Episode 1 | 5,892,000 |
| 2 | Line of Duty | Series 6/Episode 1 | 3,621,000 |
| 3 | Bloodlands | Episode 1 | 3,602,000 |
| 4 | Traces | Episode 1 | 3,458,000 |
| 5 | A Perfect Planet | Episode 1 – Volcano | 3,324,000 |
| 6 | Katie Price: Harvey and Me | 2,833,000 | |
| 7 | EastEnders | 01/01/2021 | 2,526,000 |
| 8 | Forensics: The Real CSI | Series 2/Episode 1 | 1,985,000 |
| 9 | Death in Paradise | Series 10/Episode 1 | 1,952,000 |
| 10 | The Terror | Go for Broke | 1,942,000 |
[BBC MC]