This year’s FIFA World Cup has broken world records across the BBC’s digital platform.
Across iPlayer and BBC Sport, the Corporation recorded 66.8 million total match requests.
On the BBC’s linear offering, 44.5million viewers tuned in to watch the games.
The tournament overall saw a record-breaking 66.8 million match requests (live and on-demand) with 56.3 million of these being live requests.
The World Cup final between France and Croatia saw a peak BBC One TV audience of 10.4 million (1 min peak) with 54 per cent peak share (1 minute) and two million live requests (with 36,000 on-demand) to stream the match online on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport.
Director of BBC Sport, Barbara Slater said: “We have just witnessed one of the most memorable World Cup tournaments ever which has captivated football fans across the United Kingdom. The interest in the tournament and the achievement of England winning through to the semi-finals has been proven in the record-breaking figures for TV and online. It shows the impact that top quality sport can have when made freely available to everyone. We promised to provide 24/7 coverage and our highly praised output on TV, radio and online for the last 32 days has ensured nobody missed any of the action from Russia 2018.”
During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the BBC recorded audience reach of 44.5 million which is higher than Brazil ’14 which brought in a reach of 40.7 million.
It saw a record-breaking 56.3 million requests online including 3.8 million live requests for England v Sweden – making it the BBC’s highest online-viewed live programme, ever. England v Sweden holds the highest peak share of the tournament at 89 per cent.
The top five most requested BBC matches online across BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer live and on-demand were:
1. Sweden v England (3.9 million)
2. Tunisia v England (3.09 million)
3. England v Panama (3.05 million)
4. Brazil v Belgium (2.2 million)
5. Spain v Russia (2.1 million)
The BBC’s special World Cup VR app was downloaded over 400,000 times, and over 2.5 million people registered for a BBC account.
