Sky Sports' broadcast of the Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Arsenal at the Premier League attracted a peak of 3.4 million viewers, a 94% increase on the season’s average audience on Wednesday, according to the broadcaster. The match at the Etihad Stadium kicked off at 8:15 pm (BST) and averaged 3.1 million viewers.
The magnitude of the audience resulted in it becoming the season’s most-watched match on Sky Sports. It compares with October’s match between Manchester United and Liverpool, which reached a peak of 3.6 million, the highest ratings for a game on Sky Sports in seven years. The peak figure for Manchester City came close to matching the 3.6 million viewers for October’s clash between Manchester United and Liverpool, Sky’s highest ratings in seven years for a Premier League fixture.
Sky said the earlier match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United drew a peak audience of 2.7 million, a 43% increase on the season average, despite being played at a much earlier time than most midweek broadcasts. The broadcaster said its online platform, skysports.com also received a spike in viewership with 4.9 million unique users and 12 million views of Premier League videos in less than 24 hours.
Broadcasts of league matches across Europe have also seen significant ratings rise. It was reported that 75% of those watching last night’s match chose to do so with the artificial crowd noise option available on the Sky Sports Main Event channel. The 6 pm match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United registered a peak audience of 2.7 million viewers.
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