Massive World Cup final TV viewing figures show clear win for BBC

Nearly 20 million people watched the World Cup final in the UK, although the BBC were the clear winners over ITV.

The peak BBC audience was 14.9 million, while ITV topped out at 4.3 million – despite the added pull of Roy Keane and his bold new look.

That didn’t set any records in the UK, although it was a significant audience share with people captivated by the battle between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe that went all the way to penalties.

Even those ratings were dwarfed by the figures coming out of France, which saw 29.4 million viewers glued to the contest. That was more then 7 million more than the audience for the 2018 World Cup final when Les Bleus beat Croatia and represented an 82% audience share.

However, it was the first World Cup in which Mediametrie were able to also keep tabs on out-of-home viewings at bars, hotels, and on smaller handheld devices.

With regard global viewing figures, FIFA are hoping to announce an increase on the 2018 tournament, especially after the pre-tournament talk of boycotts on political grounds.

More than 1.12 billion people watched the World Cup final worldwide in 2018, while 3.572 billion people watched some part of the tournament.