England’s final Euro 2020 game was the most-watched TV event in more than 20 years, newly-released viewing figures have confirmed.
On Monday morning, it was revealed that an average of 17.8 million people tuned in to watch England play Italy the previous night live on BBC One, with an additional average of four million watching ITV’s coverage.
At its peak, the BBC pulled in as many as 25 million people during the live broadcast, with ITV’s peak figures standing at 5.8 million.
Metro has reported that these combined figures made the match the third most-watched broadcast of all time, beaten only by England’s World Cup victory in 1966 (which drew in 32.3 million) and the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997 (on 32.1 million).
England’s success in this year’s Euros gave the team its first spot in a major tournament final in 55 years.
Sadly, football didn’t come home as many hoped, with Italy eventually beating the squad 3-2 after a tense penalty shootout.
There’s definitely still a cause for celebration, though, with celebrities including Adele, Dave and Dua Lipa cheering on the Three Lions on social media for their strong performance throughout the tournament.
And it wasn’t just the game itself that kept us entertained this weekend.
Plenty of fun-loving fans in the crowd (not to mention a select few A-list stars watching in the stands) also gave us plenty to keep an eye out for on the night.
Fortunately for those already missing their footie fix, there’s now just over a year to go until the 2022 World Cup gets underway, and it all kicks off all over again...