England semi-final run sets TV viewing record

England’s progress to the World Cup semi-finals delivered its biggest TV audience in Britain so far at the tournament, with ITV1 peaking at 16.8 million viewers.

Initial BARB figures, reported by orignights.tv, put the programme’s average audience at 12.7 million. The match kicked off at 10pm London time in Miami and beat the previous England high of 15 million, set for the opening game against Croatia last month.

Even so, the semi-final audience fell well short of some of England’s biggest World Cup nights in recent years. The 2022 quarter-final defeat by France peaked at 21.3 million viewers, while the 2018 quarter-final win over Sweden drew a peak of 20 million.

England’s 3-2 win over Mexico in the 2026 round of 16, shown in the early hours, was watched by 9 million people in Britain and set the record for the biggest UK live TV audience between 2am and 4am.