The BBC attracted the lion’s share of viewing, as the 2022 World Cup came to a thrilling end with both BBC One and ITV1 covering the event.
BBC One attracted a peak TV audience of 14.9 million during Sunday afternoon’s match between France and Argentina, a 58% share of the audience. Argentina’s victory has been streamed 7.1 million times on the BBC iPlayer so far.
Around 4.3 million opted to watch ITV1’s coverage of the final, according to initial ratings data, which doesn’t include ITVX.
As a result, close to 20 million in total watched the final on traditional broadcast channels, working out at almost 3 in 4 viewers tuning to the BBC’s live coverage.
Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport, commented:
“One of the greatest World Cup Finals of all time, Argentina and Messi’s victory last night closed off a thrilling four weeks of football. A first ever winter World Cup was a new experience for fans and the BBC has once again demonstrated the value of sport when made freely available to all, breaking new streaming records and providing the highest quality coverage, analysis and entertainment across TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport Online and BBC Sounds.”