England’s Euro 2020 quarter-final victory over Ukraine took its last 16 victory over Germany as the most watched TV event of 2021 in the UK.
Gareth Southgate’s team made their fans proud in Rome when Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson all fought to send the Three Lions into the semifinals with remarkable ease. It was predicted to be a tough match, and the convincing nature of the 4-0 victory has fans more than ever believing that football can actually come home.
A record was broken for the previous round with Germany at Wembley, when 20.6 million people lined up to see the 2-0 victory. However, the Ukraine game has narrowly surpassed it as the most watched TV event of any kind in 2021, with 20.9 million people watching TV.
The BBC published the figures which confirmed that a surprising 81.8% of the potential audience watched the match live on BBC One.
It does not end either. It is estimated that another 5.2 million people watched the game online, bringing the total to 26.1 million. It is about 35% of the entire British population and makes it one of the ten most watched British broadcasts ever.
The numbers are incredible and look even more remarkable when you consider that they do not fix for the millions who watched the game outside their home. Pubs across the country were packed to the brim, while most venues in the UK now allow up to six people to meet indoors at home.
WOW! ???
This year’s most watched live TV event to date.
Thank you for coming with us! #bbcfootball # bbceuro2020
– BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 4, 2021
It is impossible to estimate the total number of people who actually saw the game, but one would suspect that it was just over half of the total population in the UK.
Those who cheer on England were also not disappointed when they delivered one of their most rounded performances in several years to create a deserved semi-final with Denmark.
And with the showing number trending upwards for every England game so far (with the exception of their Group D collision with the Czech Republic), do not be surprised to see that one breaks even more records.
