Seasonal specials of EastEnders, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Outnumbered and Sherlock helped the BBC achieve its highest-ever audiences on the BBC iPlayer.
The week leading up to the New Year (26 December – 1 January) saw 69.3 million requests, more than any other week in BBC iPlayer’s history. December was also BBC iPlayer’s best month ever, seeing 281 million requests across the month.
Dan Taylor-Watt, Head of BBC iPlayer, said: “Christmas is always a popular time for people to watch programmes on BBC iPlayer, but it’s fantastic to have had our best ever week in our best ever month over the festive season, with huge numbers coming to iPlayer to see the cliff-hangers of Albert Square, the drama of The Witness for the Prosecution, comedic antics from Mrs Brown’s Boys and the thrilling return of Sherlock.”
EastEnders, an everyday story of miserable London folk, represented half of the Top 20 most popular shows on iPlayer. The most popular show was the New Year’s Day episode with 1.3 million requests.
Of the top ten most-requested episodes per series, the first Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special was second, the Outnumbered Christmas Special third and the return of Sherlock fourth.
New Year’s Eve saw a big surge in live viewing, accounting for 75 per cent of all requests between 11pm and 1am. It was particularly popular on mobiles, driving an 80 per cent spike around the turn of the year at midnight.
