Each year, we prise our tired OnEuropean souls from the depths of PED (Post-Eurovision Depression) and peer over the pulpits to see how many people indulged our ridiculously happy habit of watching Eurovision. It’s time for the almost annual (never happened in 2020) review of the viewing figures for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision 2023 was held in Liverpool on 9, 11 and 13 May, with the BBC hosting on behalf of Ukraine’s UA:PBC. The European Broadcasting Union reported 162 million viewers across the three live shows in 38 public-service media markets. That is a combined reach figure for the event, not the audience for the Grand Final alone.
The EBU also reported a 40.9% average viewing share for the Grand Final, rising to 53.5% among 15–24-year-olds. As ever, the national figures below need a little care: some are average television audiences, some include audience shares, and some figures come from different measurement bases. The compilation figures exclude streaming.
The first semi-final
The first semi-final of Eurovision 2023 drew substantial interest across Europe, although the figures originally circulating were not always comparing like with like.
Austria recorded 1.08 million viewers, up from 500,000 in 2022 — a reported 115% increase. The earlier wording about a peak total and an average of 306,000 appears to mix different measurements, so 1.08 million is the useful comparable figure here.
For the Big Five, the compilation records 1.21 million viewers in Germany, 1.81 million in Spain and 3.53 million in Italy. Those figures do not line up with the smaller figures sometimes quoted for particular channels, target groups or services, so they should not be treated as direct replacements without knowing the methodology.
The United Kingdom’s first semi-final audience was 2.3 million on BBC One, with a reported peak of approximately 3.5 million. The much larger 9.85 million figure belongs to the Grand Final column, not this semi-final — an easy enough mistake to make when the Eurovision numbers begin breeding in captivity.
The Netherlands had 3.26 million viewers and a reported 40% share. Norway’s audience was 1.08 million, down 13% from 1.24 million in 2022, while Sweden recorded 2.32 million, a 2% fall from 2.38 million.
The second semi-final
Austria pulled in 568,000 viewers for the second semi-final, with a 23.1% audience share. The Netherlands achieved a 24.4% share with 1.13 million viewers.
The United Kingdom’s second semi-final figure was 4.73 million in the compilation. Comparisons with the first semi-final need caution, however, because the UK was not broadcasting its own entry in that show.
Germany recorded 1.17 million viewers, Spain 2.67 million, Italy 11.05 million and Portugal 1.15 million in the compilation. The much lower figures previously quoted for some of these countries may represent a different channel, target group or measurement basis.
Across the countries for which national television figures were collected, the compilation totalled 33.98 million viewers for the first semi-final and 33.07 million for the second. These are sums of reported national averages, excluding streaming, rather than worldwide audiences.
The Grand Final
Germany, the most populous country in the European Union, recorded an average of 7.4 million viewers according to the EBU, up 14% on 2022. A separate compilation gives 7.96 million, apparently using a different measurement basis, so the two figures should not be casually combined.
The United Kingdom, hosting the contest in Liverpool for the first time since 1998, had an average audience of 9.9 million on BBC One, a 63% viewing share and a 12% increase on 2022. The compilation lists 9.85 million, which is close enough to explain the original “over 10.2 million” claim as a different measurement, but not close enough to pretend that all these numbers mean precisely the same thing.
Elsewhere, France recorded 3.48 million viewers, up 10% on 2022. Italy, which had 6.59 million viewers in 2022, fell to 4.91 million. Spain dropped 29% to 4.84 million, with related reporting giving approximately 4.8 million and a 39.7% share. The Netherlands fell 40%, from 3.09 million to 1.85 million.
Some countries went sharply in the other direction. Israel rose from 200,000 viewers in 2022 to 980,000 in 2023 — a reported 391% increase. Croatia rose from 500,000 to 1.40 million, an increase of 180%, rather than quite “triple” in the strict mathematical sense.
The Grand Final figures for Sweden and Norway were 2.32 million and 1.08 million respectively. Sweden was down 2% from 2022, while Norway fell 13%.
The compilation totalled 53.89 million viewers across the countries for which national average television figures were collected. That is not the worldwide Grand Final audience, and it excludes streaming. The EBU’s headline figure was 162 million across all three live shows and 38 public-service media markets.
There were digital audiences too: the EBU reported 45 million unique viewers for official YouTube content during the live-show week and 7.6 million live Grand Final views on YouTube. These figures cannot simply be added to the television totals, as audiences may overlap.
