BBC iPlayer attracts record streaming audiences during Christmas week

BBC iPlayer pulled record-breaking streaming numbers during the Christmas week December 21-31 2023, reaching 177m streams, up by more than 7% to the previous year.

The UK pubcaster’s streaming platform beat its previous record during the week January 2-8 2023, which attracted 173m streams.

The BBC’s soap drama EastEnders was the most streamed title on iPlayer, culminating 26.28m streams for the festive fortnight from December 23 – 1 Jan 2024. Its Christmas Day episode was also the most streamed on iPlayer, hitting 2.96m streams.

During this week crime drama series Vigil was runner up for most streamed show, reaching 10.96 streams. The Doctor Who franchise followed behind which which was streamed 10.01 times.

Also among the top 10 most streamed shows during the week December 23 – 1 Jan 2024 were Mrs Brown’s Boys (4.64m), Death in Paradise (3.98m), Gavin & Stacey (3.96m), Call the Midwife (3.85m), Ghosts (3.82m), Bluey (10.42m) and Hey Duggee (10.12m).

The BBC also revealed New Year’s Day had its best day during festive fortnight’, gaining a record 29.8m streams on BBC iPlayer

During Christmas week, 16.5m BBC accounts signed into BBC iPlayer which is up by 5% compared to the year before. In addition, 4.9m of those accounts were aged 35 , and under, up by more than 7% on last year.

Dan McGolpin, director of BBC iPlayer and Channels said: “It’s 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.”