2026 World Cup: BBC reaches 42 million viewers in the UK, record average audience for Rai in Italy

The BBC recorded a reach of 42 million viewers for its coverage of the 2026 World Cup in the UK, the public broadcaster announced on 20 July 2026. It co-broadcast the tournament with the ITV Group.

Among the figures released by the BBC regarding its World Cup coverage:
• 237 million match streams were recorded on the BBC iPlayer platform and on BBC Sport (website and app), which is "more than double that of the 2022 World Cup;"
• 33% of all streaming views on BBC iPlayer were related to the World Cup;
• 57.2 million unique visitors were recorded on the BBC Sport website and app, whose content was also viewed 1.7 billion times during the tournament;
• 2.55 billion views were generated on BBC Sport’s social media channels.

The BBC drew its best live TV audience in the UK since 2021 during the…