BBC announces record-breaking festive viewing on BBC iPlayer

BBC reported that viewers flocked to BBC iPlayer during the Christmas week (December 25-31) setting a new all-time record for the streaming platform. That week saw programmes streamed a record-breaking 177 million times, up +7% on the same time the year before – and beating the previous record (January 2-8, 2023), when 173 million streams of programmes in a week.

More broadly, throughout the “festive fortnight” (December 19, 2023 - January 1, 2024), the dramatic reveal of “EastEnders: The Six” storyline on Christmas Day topped the chart as the most popular episode on iPlayer (2.96 million) – followed by the climax to the second series of “Vigil” (2.19 million), Rick Astley bringing in the New Year (2.02 million), and the “Call the Midwife” (2.01 million) and “Doctor Who’s” Christmas specials (1.79 million).

“EastEnders” was also the top title on iPlayer (26.28 million streams) for the “festive fortnight.” “Vigil” (10.96 million), “Doctor Who” – from 2005 onwards – (10.01 million), “Mrs. Brown's Boys” (4.64 million), “Death in Paradise” (3.98 million), “Gavin & Stacey” (3.96 million), “Call the Midwife” (3.85 million), and “Ghosts” (3.82 million) also made the top ten – along with children’s favourites “Bluey” (10.42 million) and “Hey Duggee” (10.12 million).

The BBC also revealed that New Year’s Day had its best day (during a “festive fortnight”) ever – with programmes streamed a record 29.8 million times on iPlayer. Furthermore, the Christmas week saw a massive 16.5 million BBC accounts signed in to watch programmes on BBC iPlayer – up +5% on the same time the year before. 4.9 million of those accounts were from people under 35 – up +7% on last year, making it the best week ever seen within a “festive fortnight” as well as being the highest week of 2023.

“It is wonderful to see that viewers came to BBC iPlayer in record numbers over the festive period. Nowhere else would they have found the same range of high-quality British programming to keep them gripped, make them laugh or to provide companionship and news at that special time. And with a whole host of compelling drama, comedy, factual programming, entertainment, and sport landing on iPlayer in 2024, viewers can look forward to a great year ahead,”  said Dan McGolpin, Director of BBC iPlayer and Channels.