A peak audience of around 24 million tuned in for England’s Euro 2024 final loss to Spain last night (July 14) across UK broadcasters the BBC and ITV, the most-watched combined broadcast of the year in the country.
The figure was down considerably from the Euro 2020 final (played in 2021 due to Covid), when a peak of more than 30 million watched England lose on penalties to Italy at Wembley.
The Euro 2024 showpiece was watched by an average of 22.3 million across the two broadcasters.
Once again, the BBC attracted a significantly larger audience than ITV, with its audience peaking at 19.3 million, compared to 6.4 million for its rival.
An average of 11.37 million viewers watched on the BBC, and an average of 3.9 million tuned into ITV, which posted an audience share of 26% which it claims is its highest viewing share for a major men's soccer tournament final since records go back.
The match, which Spain won 2-1 with a late goal, brought in a peak TV audience of 17.8 million on the main BBC One channel with an audience share of 63%.
The final was also streamed 7.6 million times on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
ITV did, however, deliver the most-watched match of Euro 2024 on a single channel in the UK with a peak audience of 21.6 million watching England’s 2-1 semi-final win over the Netherlands.
Spain secured a record fourth UEFA European Championship with the late victory at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, while the defeat saw England become the first nation to lose back-to-back finals.
In Spain, meanwhile, 13.6 million viewers (78.7% share) watched their country’s success on public-service broadcaster RTVE.
The audience peaked at 14 million for the trophy presentation (79.1% share) and was the most-watched match in 12 years on RTVE.
It was the broadcaster's biggest soccer audience since the Euro 2012 final when Spain beat Italy.
In a strong day of sports viewership for the BBC, the public-service broadcaster drew a peak of 7.5 million viewers for the Wimbledon men's singles final between Spain's Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic of Serbia on BBC One.
The climax of this year’s iconic grass court tennis tournament, won in straight sets by Alcaraz, was also streamed live 3.3 million times on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport.
Saturday's women's final, where Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova beat Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, had a TV peak of 4.1 million and was streamed 1.9 million times - an increase from last year’s women’s final.
The BBC’s sports coverage this summer will now switch to the Paris 2024 Olympics that start on July 26, with the Paralympics following from 28 August.
