Eurovision Song Contest reaches 162m viewers
May 25, 2023
By Colin Mann
The 67th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), hosted by the BBC in Liverpool, on behalf of Ukraine, and organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), reached 162 million people over the three live shows across 38 public service media markets.
The viewing share of the Grand Final on May 13th was 40.9 per cent and remains more than double the broadcast channels average (17.4 per cent).
“With hundreds of millions tuning in to the live shows on EBU Member channels and record-breaking numbers engaging with the songs and artists on our different digital platforms, the Eurovision Song Contest has never been more popular,” declared Noel Curran, EBU Director General. “Our thanks go to the BBC who worked closely with UA:PBC for organizing this incredible showcase of Ukrainian culture and the diversity of European music and creativity.”
“The Eurovision Song Contest has proved, once again, that public service media has the power to unite the world through music with a global reach we are hugely proud of,” added the ESC’s Executive Supervisor, Martin Österdahl. “We’re thrilled to see that every year more and more people around the world discover this special event and that it is providing a huge launchpad for new music.”
Host country the UK delivered their largest ESC audience on record, with an average of 9.9 million viewers watching the Grand Final on BBC One, up 12 per cent on 2022, with a 63 per cent share of viewers.
“We are all incredibly proud to deliver three amazing live shows for record-breaking audiences across globe,” commented Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC. “The numbers speak for themselves and are a testament to the hard work of our teams at the BBC and our colleagues in Ukraine. This was a Eurovision Song Contest like no other and we couldn’t have been more proud to showcase Ukraine and Liverpool to the rest of the world.”
The Contest once again proved hugely popular with younger audiences. Among 15–24-year-olds, the viewing share of the Grand Final was 53.5 per cent, remaining four times higher than the broadcast channels average (13.8 per cent).
Sweden, who made history winning the Contest for a seventh time, delivered an average audience of 2.3 million viewers, accounting for 82.3 per cent of all TV viewers in the country.
Last year’s winning country, Ukraine, delivered a viewing share of 19.7 per cent.
“I am very glad that so many viewers all over the world have watched this year’s unique Eurovision Song Contest,” said Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of Ukrainian EBU Member UA:PBC. “We know well what massive efforts have been made to produce the shows at such a high level. I am convinced that they will become an example for future host countries of the Contest. I am proud of our collaboration with the BBC, hosting this Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine and showing the world the variety of Ukrainian and UK cultures.”
In a third of markets (13 out of 39) the ESC claimed over 50 per cent of the viewing share, led by Iceland with 98.7 per cent and followed closely by other Nordic markets (Norway 87.8 per cent, Finland 85.6 per cent, and Sweden 82.3 per cent).
7.6 million people watched the Grand Final live on the Official ESC YouTube channel with over 3.2 million live views of the Semi-Finals.
On TikTok, the Eurovision Song Contest’s Official Entertainment Partner, the 3 live shows were viewed 4.8 million times.
Online, the Eurovision Song Contest’s digital platforms saw record engagement:
- 105 million unique accounts were reached on TikTok during the two weeks of the event.
- TikTok also saw a total of 315 million video views on the official Eurovision account – up 40 per cent year-on-year. There were further 53 million views of content in the days following the Grand Final.
- Videos on the platform using the hashtag #Eurovision2023 have been watched 4.8 billion times.
- 45 million unique viewers across 232 countries and territories watched content on the official YouTube channel during the week of the Live Shows – up 2.7m on 2022.
- 32 million unique accounts were reached on Instagram – three times as many as in 2022.
- Videos on the platform were seen 181 million times, while content on the ESC Facebook page was seen by 29 million people during the two event weeks – 5 million more than in 2022.
- In total, videos on the 4 social channels were watched nearly 540 million times during the weeks of the event – nearly double the amount seen in 2022.
- 4 million tweets using the word ‘Eurovision’ were sent on Twitter between the First Semi Final and the Grand Final.
The Eurovision Song Contest continues to produce worldwide hits and promote music from across the participating nations in 2023.
The official Eurovision Song Contest 2023 playlist on Spotify was the most-streamed Spotify playlist globally on Sunday May 14th.
The platform’s Global chart for all streaming across the world also saw five entries from 2023 break into the Top 200 on the same day.
Winning song Tattoo’s streaming tally of 4.2 million plays on the day after the Grand Final beat the previous highest total for 2021’s winner Zitti E Buoni by Måneskin, who recorded 3.9 million streams. The number of plays also set another record for Loreen, who became the first woman to win the Song Contest twice. She now has the highest number of streams ever achieved in a single day by a Swedish female artist.
Contest runner-up Cha Cha Cha by Käärijä achieved the most daily Spotify streams of all time in Finland, with Finnish listeners pressing play on the Eurovision party-starter a massive 469,000 times on the day after the Grand Final. Cha Cha Cha ended the week with 2.5m listens on Spotify Finland alone – which is the highest weekly tally of streams ever seen in Käärijä’s native Finland.
On the Official ESC YouTube channel, videos featuring Loreen, including exclusive live performances and interviews, have received 31.4m views to date. Second placed Käärijä has had 31m views of all his exclusive performances and interviews to date.
The Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by the BBC, on behalf of Ukraine’s EBU Member UA:PBC on May 9th, 11th and 13th and broadcast in the 37 participating countries, Chile, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, USA, and online.