ITV's coverage of England's victory over Denmark was watched by an incredible peak audience of 27.6 million viewers – making it the most watched football match ever seen on one channel on British TV.
Confirmed overnight figures from the broadcaster show the match was record-breaking in terms of the audience size – the peak was 26.3 million & including Hub non-TV devices the peak increased to 27.6 million, making it the biggest peak football audience ever for a single channel.
The one-minute peak figure, calculated across TV and other smart devices including phones and laptops, also means ITV has the three biggest single channel audiences for England major tournament games. A huge 27.5 million tuned in for England's defeat by Croatia in the 2018 World Cup and 26 million for England v Argentina in 1998.
This makes last night's audience bigger than the England World Cup Semi-Final of 2018 and therefore the biggest peak football audience ever (excluding shared broadcasts) and the biggest peak for any genre since the 2012 Olympics.
Last night's match, which was won by a Harry Kane goal in Extra Time, peaked with a staggering 26.3 million viewers on ITV, and an 89.3 percent audience share, with a whistle-to-whistle audience of 23.9m (82.3 percent average share), making it the most watched match of the tournament so far.
Overall, the coverage from 6.30pm to 11.24pm was watched by an average audience of 16.7m viewers (70.6 percent audience share). An additional 0.4m watched on non-TV devices on ITV Hub, bringing the total audience to 17.1m.
The coverage also totalled a record 11 million streams on ITV Hub (10.5 million) and STV Player (0.5 million).
On Sunday ITV will go head to head with the BBC when it comes to coverage of the Euro 2020 final where England play Italy. ITV's coverage will start at 6.30pm and be preceded by the film The Italian Job. The BBC's coverage kicks off at 7pm.
Celebrating their big ratings win on Wednesday night, ITV's football host Mark Pougatch said on Twitter: “A peak of 26.3 million & including Hub non-TV devices the peak increases to 27.6 million, making it the biggest peak football audience ever for a single channel. Thankyou for being there.”
