Sunday night’s UEFA EURO 2024 final drew record-breaking viewership. 918,000 (55% share) tuned in on RTÉ2 to watch England’s dramatic loss to Spain, and an additional 426,000 live-streamed the match on RTÉ Player.
The number is marginally down for linear TV from the 941,000 who watched England lose to Italy in 2021, the third most watched programme of that year in the throes still of some Covid restrictions.
In England, the drift was much more substantial. 23.8 million watched the game across BBC and ITV, making it the most watched broadcast of the year but that number is down from the 31 million who tuned in three years ago for the England Vs Italy final at Wembley.
The shift to streaming, though, is more marked in a positive fashion. There were 7.7 million streams of live action from Germany, compared to 2.5 million from the whole of Euro 2020 (in 2021).
RTÉ delivered live coverage of all 51 games in the tournament to Irish audiences across RTÉ2, RTÉ Player and RTÉ News Channel.
The journey to the final attracted huge audiences. The quarter-final clash between Portugal and France was the second most-watched match on RTÉ2, averaging 571,400 viewers (458k streams). This was followed by the England v Switzerland match, with an average audience of 500,300 (349k streams). The England v Slovakia match secured the fourth spot with a 465,700 average audience (294k streams).
In 2021, the second, third, and fourth most watched games were England’s semi-final match against Denmark with 888,000, the other semi-final between Italy and Spain, watched by 586,000, and the group stage game between England and Scotland, which attracted 547,000.
59% of the 7.7 million streams this time around came via mobiles. This marks a phenomenal increase of 5.2 million streams on UEFA EURO 2020 and brings the total number of streams on RTÉ Player to 74 million in 2024, up 42% on the same period last year.
For comparison, there have been 17 million streams of drama box sets on the Player.
Viewers can look forward to lots more thrilling coverage of the Summer of Sport on RTÉ, with the GAA All-Ireland Hurling and Football finals, Olympics and Paralympics still to come.
“We are delighted the scale of the audience reflected the nature of the tournament as one of the major sporting pillars of the summer,” said Declan McBennett, Head of Sport at RTÉ.
“Together with the GAA Championship and with the Olympics and Paralympics yet to come, it again shows the power of live sport and the huge attraction it is for the Irish people.”
“The noticeable shift towards increased Player viewing also reflects the changing patterns in sporting consumption.”
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