Eurovision 2026 – The Viewing Figures

Each year, we let things settle and do our level best to gather the numbers from various broadcasters to talk about how many people tuned in to the annual Eurovision Song Contest.

The 70th Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna from 12 to 16 May 2026, drew 131 million television viewers across 35 measured markets – a significant fall of 35 million on the 166 million who watched the 2025 contest in Basel. The EBU released the official figures on 5 June 2026, confirming this was the contest’s lowest television audience since the 2012 edition.

Despite the decline, eternal straw-clutcher, Eurovision director Martin Green, did the whole ‘you can prove anything with statistics – even bad ones‘ thing and noted how the average Grand Final viewing share of 42.6% remains higher than every edition of the contest held between 2009 and 2023, and still more than double the average broadcast channel share of 16.9%.

Semi-Final 1 — Tuesday 12 May

The first semi-final, broadcast featured 15 competing countries with Germany and Italy performing as non-competing Big Four entrants. Israel topped the results with 269 points, qualifying alongside Poland, Finland, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Lithuania, Sweden, and Belgium.

Viewing figures across major markets reflected the absence of Big Four countries from competition, with no host-nation act capable of lifting numbers to their usual peak:

• United Kingdom (BBC One): Approximately 1.3 million viewers watched the BBC’s live broadcast.

• Sweden (SVT1): 1,149,000 viewers tuned in, boosted by the presence of Swedish entry Felicia performing “My System”.

• Germany (ONE): Around 920,000 viewers watched, with a market share near 35%.

• Italy (Rai): Over 1.25 million viewers watched the semi-final in which Italy performed as a non-competing qualifier.

• Poland (TVP): Around 1.5 million viewers, a share of 16.5%, only slightly down on the 1.86 million who watched Semi-Final 1 in Basel 2025.

• Finland (Yle TV1): Semi-Final 1 reached 1.8 million people in Finland with an average of around 900,000 viewers, given that hot favourites Finnish duo Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen performed in this show; Yle’s stream on Areena was started around 230,000 times.

• Belgium (RTBF): Just over 750,000 viewers watched, Belgium’s lowest semi-final audience for a competition in which it participated in over a decade.

• Austria (ORF): Around 300,000 viewers — at 90% market share for the time slot – representing an engaged but smaller audience, as Austria performed in Semi-Final 2.

• YouTube (global livestream): The official Eurovision YouTube stream peaked at 341,500 concurrent viewers – a four-year low, down 22.7% year-on-year.

Semi-Final 2 — Thursday 14 May

The second semi-final featured 15 countries vying for the remaining ten Grand Final places, with Austria, France, and the United Kingdom performing non-competitively. Bulgaria topped the semi-final with 278 points, qualifying alongside Romania, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Ukraine, Albania, Malta, Czechia, and Cyprus.

• United Kingdom (BBC One): Approximately 1.2 million viewers – which is really not bad for a Thursday night.

• Sweden (SVT1): 843,000 viewers, down from Semi-Final 1 and reflecting Sweden’s lack of a competing act in this show – though it remained the most-watched television programme in Sweden that evening.

• Germany (ARD/ONE): Just under 880,000 viewers, a market share of 4.7% on ONE alone, with the combined ARD/ONE figure reaching close to a 10% share – the highest for a semi-final without a German act competing since at least 2019.

• Italy (Rai): Just over 1.25 million viewers, slightly above Semi-Final 1.

• Bulgaria (BNT1): Some genuinely good news with an average of approximately 500,000 viewers with a peak of 685,000 during the broadcast, placing BNT1 top of the Bulgarian ratings with a 28.6% audience share.

• Ukraine (Suspilne Kultura): 903,000 viewers for Semi-Final 2, with the contest’s television audience in Ukraine up 14% on 2025.

• Denmark (DR): 563,000 viewers for Semi-Final 2, compared to 322,000 for Semi-Final 1 – with Semi-Final 2 drawing considerably more interest given Denmark’s competing entry.

• Norway (NRK): 488,000 viewers for Semi-Final 2, the show in which Norway’s Jonas Lovv performed, compared to 320,000 for Semi-Final 1.

• Austria (ORF): ORF recorded comprehensive coverage across all three shows; Semi-Final 2 marked Austria’s own non-competing appearance, which brought a sharper audience spike than Semi-Final 1.

Grand Final — Saturday 16 May

Bulgaria’s Dara won the Grand Final with “Bangaranga”, scoring 516 points across jury and televote — the first entry to win both simultaneously since Portugal in 2017. The overall EBU figure of 131 million across 35 measured markets represents the Grand Final and semi-finals combined.

The Grand Final achieved an average viewing share of 42.6%, down from 47.7% in 2025, while the youth share among 15 to 24-year-olds fell from a record 60.4% to a genuinely dissapointing 54.8%. However, in 14 of the 35 measured markets, more than 50% of all television viewers watched the Grand Final.

Country-by-country figures for the Grand Final:

• Germany (ARD + ONE): 8.935 million viewers with a combined market share of 46.8%, making it by far Germany’s most-watched programme of the evening. Among 14-49-year-olds, the market share reached 64.6%, while among 14-29-year-olds it hit 78.3%. Digital streams through ARD Mediathek and eurovision.de totalled 2.8 million – half a million more than in 2025

• United Kingdom (BBC One): BARB confirmed 5,423,800 viewers – the lowest ever recorded for the contest on British television and only the second time it has attracted fewer than 6 million since ratings data was published. This represents a fall of approximately 1.49 million on the 6.7 million who watched in 2025. The show remained the second most-watched broadcast of the week across all British outlets.

• Italy (Rai): 5.1 million viewers – up 267,000 on 2025.

• France (France 2): 3,986,000 viewers, a market share of 33.3% – a decline of 24.6% compared to 2025.

• Finland (Yle TV1): 1.8 million average viewers with a reach of over 2.6 million across the evening, representing a 92.8% audience share – the highest viewing share ever recorded for the contest in Finland, and the best average audience since 2007. The contest ran until approximately 2am Finnish time.

• Austria (ORF1): 1,684,000 average viewers with a total reach of 3.268 million across the evening’s programming, equating to 43% of Austria’s television population aged 12 and above. This represented a 76% increase on ORF’s 2025 figures and was ORF’s strongest Eurovision result since Vienna last hosted in 2015. Among 12-29 year-olds, the share reached 93% during the final voting sequence.

• Sweden (SVT1): 1,949,000 viewers watched the final on the linear broadcast – down approximately 600,000 on the 2.5 million who watched in 2025, the lowest figure since 2010.

• Greece (ERT): 2.8 million viewers – the highest audience in Greece since 2011, with a peak share of 84% during the Greek performance and the results announcement, and an average share of 68.7%.

• Norway (NRK): Initial figures suggested 676,000-808,000 viewers, but NRK later corrected this, confirming 744,000 average viewers and 903,000 during peak moments, with a total reach of 1,526,000 across the evening. The 2025 final, which coincided with Norwegian Constitution Day, recorded 844,000 viewers.

• Denmark (DR): 847,000 average viewers and a 79% share – the best Grand Final audience in Denmark since 2019 and the highest share since 2014, driven by Søren Torpegaard Lund’s seventh-place finish.

• Ukraine (Suspilne Kultura): 1,472,000 viewers for the Grand Final with a 16.45% share – up 14% on 2025. Across all three live shows and pre-shows, Suspilne Kultura recorded 6.7 million views from 2.9 million unique viewers.

• Bulgaria (BNT1): A 46% viewing share – the broadcaster’s best performance across its 15 participations since 2005, representing the highest share in its Eurovision history. Until next year, where it will go through any roof available.

• Australia (SBS): 464,000 average viewers for the Grand Final, with a total live reach of 1.21 million and a further 226,000 on SBS On Demand – the best Grand Final result for Australia since it joined the contest in 2015. Overall, more than 3.27 million Australians watched some part of SBS’s Eurovision coverage, a 45.2% increase on 2025.

• Poland (TVP): 566,000 viewers for the final, a share of 6.11% – a significant fall given Poland’s strong semi-final interest.

• Switzerland: Figures declined by approximately 607,000 on the 2025 total, likely the lowest since Switzerland hosted in 2025.

Boycotting Countries — Limited Broadcast Data

Five countries formally withdrew from competing, but their broadcast decisions varied:

• Iceland (RÚV): Boycotted competition but broadcast the contest as usual. We’ve yet to find reliable data, but I’m sure it exists.

• Netherlands (NPO 1): Sister broadcaster NPO – legally required to cover major cultural events – aired all three shows, replacing the competing broadcaster AVROTROS. Dutch fans ranked among the top ten non-participating countries for votes cast.

• Ireland (RTÉ): Neither competed nor broadcast the contest; regular programming continued. Irish viewers ranked among the top non-participating countries for votes, suggesting many watched online.

• Slovenia (RTVSLO): Neither competed nor broadcast; instead aired a Voices of Palestine programming strand across Eurovision week.

• Spain (RTVE): Neither competed nor broadcast; at the contest start time, RTVE aired a message in Spanish and English reading: “The Eurovision Song Contest is a competition, but human rights are not”.

Digital and Streaming Figures

While linear television fell, digital engagement continued to grow. Possibly because a whole bunch of dedicated fans live in countries not broadcasting the show. The Grand Final’s official YouTube livestream attracted 5.43 million unique viewers in the first 48 hours following broadcast –  a 4.6% increase on Basel 2025 – with peak concurrent viewership of 1.4 million. That said, the semi-final live streams told a different story: Semi-Final 1 peaked at 341,500 YouTube viewers, a four-year low and a 22.7% year-on-year decline.

Across all platforms, official Eurovision content generated over 2.75 billion views between January and May 2026. Instagram surpassed one billion views for the first time, TikTok generated 872.1 million views during the season (up 9.4%), and Facebook content reached 247.8 million views (up 33.6%). Eurovision.com recorded 9.9 million active users across the season – up 32% – with 2.99 million active on Grand Final night alone.

The EBU also noted that the figures for Albania, Armenia, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Malta, North Macedonia, and San Marino were excluded from the official data release, as those countries either have no television audience measurement systems or their competing broadcaster does not measure figures.