England’s World Cup 2022 opener against Iran on Monday 21st November was streamed a record 8 million times on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online.
The lunchtime kick-off helped make the match the largest live-streamed event on the BBC over a 24-hour period.
The memorable 6-2 victory for the Three Lions also pulled in a peak TV audience of 8.1 million and over 70% of the share of available viewers.
Sunday’s opening game, Qatar v Ecuador, had a peak audience of 7.9 million on BBC One. By comparison, in 2018, the Peru & Denmark match which started at a similar time peaked at 6.6 million on the BBC.
The BBC is sharing TV coverage of the World Cup with ITV.