On Monday, a remarkable peak viewership of 9.1 million people watched England‘s thrilling victory over Mexico during the World Cup, streamed on BBC TV and BBC iPlayer.
The match took place overnight for the UK audience, starting at 02:00 BST, and garnered an average viewership of 7.8 million on both platforms.
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This marks the highest television audience ever for a live UK broadcast in the early morning hours between 02:00 and 04:00.
Additionally, it was a record-breaking day for the BBC Sport website and app, attracting 15 million unique visitors and achieving the highest single-day engagement on BBC Sport’s social media channels with 330 million video views.
Jude Bellingham remarkably scored two goals in a tense match, with England overcoming a Mexican resurgence at the Azteca Stadium to move on to the quarter-finals.
There was also significant interest in the highlights, with the BBC streaming them 5.9 million times across BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website, and the BBC Football YouTube channel.
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A re-broadcast on BBC Two at 07:10 attracted a peak viewership of 1.1 million, with an average of 900,000 tuning in.
England will face Norway in the quarter-finals on Saturday at 22:00, which will be aired live on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Norway pulled off an upset by defeating Brazil in the round of 16, and Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has so far netted seven goals in the tournament.
However, England will be without the Jarell Quansah due to suspension, and Jordan Henderson is also out due to injury, though right-back Reece James is anticipated to be fit for the match.
England’s group stage games against Croatia and Ghana began at 21:00, while the match against Panama kicked off at 22:00.
England’s victory in the round of 32 against DR Congo, which started at 17:00, remains the most-watched match for the Three Lions with a peak audience of 16.3 million on the BBC.
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The Croatia match reached a peak of 15.4 million viewers, while the victory over Panama reached 13.76 million, both airing on ITV. The draw with Ghana attracted a peak audience of 15.4 million on the BBC.
