The BBC’s iPlayer enjoyed its best ever first quarter during January to March of this year, in part due to the popularity of drama.
In March, drama dominated the list of most popular programmes with 19 of the top 20 most popular BBC iPlayer episodes.
True US crime series The Assassination of Gianni Versace – American Crime Story was the service’s most popular programme in March. The first episode of the show, starring Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin and Darren Criss, saw 1.6 million requests to take the month’s top spot.
A total of 315 million programmes were viewed in March, up 15 per cent on the same month last year, with 10.2 million daily requests. The month sits just behind January 2018 (328 million) and December 2017 (327 million) as one of the best BBC iPlayer has ever seen.
March also saw drama fans catching up on the conclusion of Collateral, with 1.2 million requests for the final episode, while JK Rowling’s Strike: Career of Evil also proved popular with 1.1 million requests. Call the Midwife’s seventh series also drew big numbers, with almost 1 million requests for the final episode.
BBC iPlayer’s most popular episodes in March were:
