EUROS 2020 VIEWING STATS: WRAP UP

We thought since we’d been updating the viewing stats throughout the Euros, that we’d do a big master post now it’s over.

We’re excited to collate all the statistics of viewing across live TV and VOD, but before we get into the stats, we wanted to say congratulations to Italy on their win, and how proud we are of the England team for bringing us to a final. You’ve all got a brilliant, bright future ahead of you.

The long awaited Euro 2020 tournament began in Rome; with Italy defeating Turkey, claiming the early advantage in Group A. In total, BBC One's coverage of that match averaged 5.17m (31.1%) between 7pm and 10.10pm, with figures of over 6m for most of the game itself.

The peak audience of 6.91m (40.2%) came at 8.43pm, just before the whistle blew for the end of the first half.

Next, England's win over Croatia at Euro 2020 peaked with a huge audience of 11.56m (79.2%) according to figures. Overall coverage of the game, which was settled by a Raheem Sterling second-half goal, averaged 7.61m (67.1%) for BBC One and the peak audience came at 3.45pm in the closing stages of the match.

And then England and Scotland's goalless draw at Wembley pulled in a mammoth TV audience for ITV and STV on Friday night, coverage of the match averaged a huge 13.13m (60.8%) between 7pm and 10.30pm, while the game itself averaged 18.37m (73.9%).

A peak audience of 19.87m (78.8%) came at 9.47pm, just before the final whistle, making the game the most-watched football match since the World Cup semi-final between England and Croatia at the time.

A peak of 10.54m (54.1%) tuned in to see Belgium place Portugal out of Euro 2020 The game’s Overall, coverage of the match on ITV averaged an impressive 7.23m (39.7%) between 7.10pm and 10.20pm, with the peak figure coming as the match drew to a close at 9.53pm.

Earlier that day, coverage of the Netherlands' 2-0 defeat to the Czech Republic averaged 4.98m (39.0%) for the channel.

A peak of more than 10 million viewers tuned in to see Wales, and ITV's coverage of the match averaged 6.34m (47.8%) between 3.55pm and 7.15pm, with a peak of 10.07m (57.1%) at 6.49pm and an impressive reach of 13.90m.

Meanwhile, ITV4 was home to the other match happening at the same time - Switzerland's 3-1 victory over Turkey, which averaged a low 78,000 (0.6%).

Then came England v Germany; the BBC said that it was watched by more than 20 million people on the BBC, the biggest TV audience of the year so far. The round-of-16 match at Wembley attracted a peak TV audience of 20.6 million, 80.1 % of viewers available at that time, with 6.5 million live streams through the website and BBC iPlayer.

England's thrashing of Ukraine in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals brought in the tournament's biggest ratings at the time, according to overnight figures from BARB.

The Three Lions took the lead with just three minutes on the clock in Rome and Coverage of the game was broadcast by BBC One, averaging an impressive averaging 19.82m overall (78.7%). The peak of 21.10m (81.7%) came at 9.29pm just as Henderson rounded off the scoring – beating  Ukraine.  

Italy’s victory over Belgium in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals drew a huge domestic audience .In Italy the Euros are being shown by local broadcaster Rai, which reported a new ratings high on Friday night, with an average of 15.48m (65.2%) tuning in for the contest. The figure built on the 13.28m (61.1%) who had watched the Italian side get pushed all the way to extra time for their victory over Austria in the previous round on June 26.

Rai's previous high for the tournament was Italy's 3-0 group-game victory over geographical neighbours Switzerland on June 16, which was seen by 13.35m (51.9%).

Italy’s dramatic penalty-shootout victory over Spain in the first semi-final of Euro 2020; according to figures, an average of 17.41m (67.5%) tuned in to RAI in Italy from 9pm local time, beating the audience for the quarter-final  by almost 2m. An additional 2m watched the game on Sky Italia, where it was broadcast in UHD.

In Spain, where coverage aired on Telecinco, the match averaged 11.7m (66.3%) with the audience growing significantly as first extra time and then penalties were required.

The broadcaster said that the shootout itself averaged 14.17m (72.9%), with a peak of 14.92m (77.1%) at 11.39pm local time.

Elsewhere, in the UK the game averaged 11.58m (55.8%) for BBC One, Germany's ARD coverage was seen by 14.6m (52.4%) and in France, the match averaged 8.5m (41.4%) for TF1.

However, last Wednesday’s game of England v Denmark trumped those figures; more than 25 million viewers watched the final five minutes of England's dramatic victory over Denmark in the semi-final of Euro 2020.

Figures from audience measurement company BARB, reported by BBC correspondent Lizo Mzimba, reveal that 23.86 million viewers watched the match on ITV or ITV+1.

These numbers place the hard won 2-1 victory as the most watched non-news broadcast since England's last semi-final at a major tournament, when they were beaten by Croatia at the 2018 World Cup.

And unsurprisingly, the audience peaked at 30.95 million viewers, for the final match figures show.

Ratings peaked during extra time in the match between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium (broadcast on both the BBC and ITV), whilst an average of 29.85m watched the whole game, according to the figures.

The combined figure makes it the highest TV audience since the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

 It shows that they closer the tournament got to the really important, game changing matches that more and more people watched. It’s also interesting to see that the higher the stakes were, the more people tuned in.

What a ride Euro 2020 has been. Till the next one.