Eurovision 2022: 161 million viewers as online engagement soars!

The boffins at the European Broadcasting Union have been busy number crunching since the Grand Final, and have now revealed the extent of the Contest’s audience and reach this year… so let’s do a deep dive into the vital statistics.

The 66th Eurovision Song Contest from Turin, Italy reached 161 million people over the 3 live shows in 34 measured markets. The reach of the Contest in those territories was up 7 million year on year.*

The viewing share for the Grand Final on Saturday 14 May was up three percentage points on 2021 at 43.3%, and remains more than double the broadcast channels average (18.2%).

The Contest once again proved hugely popular with younger audiences. Among 15–24 year-olds, the viewing share of the Grand Final was up three percentage points on 2021 at 56.2%, remaining four times higher than the broadcast channels average (14.0%).

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Host country Italy delivered their biggest audience on record (since 2011 when they re-joined the Contest), up +53% on 2021, with an average audience of 6.6 million viewers, accounting for 41.9% of TV viewing in the country.

In a third of markets (13 out of 34) the ESC claimed over 50% of the viewing share, led by Iceland with 96.4% and followed closely by other Nordic markets (Norway 89.1%, Sweden 81.4% and Finland 72.1%).

The other markets which saw more than 50% of total TV viewers watch the Grand Final were Armenia, Flemish-speaking Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Ratings Rise

Spain and the United Kingdom’s success at the Contest (finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively) was also reflected in their ratings; both countries delivered their best TV audiences of the past decade.

6.8 million viewers on average watched in Spain, up 86% on 2021, and their highest audience since 2008.

The United Kingdom delivered the largest audience of all markets in 2022 with 8.9 million viewers watching the Grand Final, up 20% on 2021.

It’s the first time in 11 years the UK has seen higher ratings than Germany who previously delivered the highest audience.**

📺 Watch: Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final

Online Success

Before we breakdown the social stats, make sure to follow the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, TwitterandFacebook channels – and subscribe to the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast.

TikTok became the Eurovision Song Contest’s Official Entertainment Partner in 2022 with the 3 Live Shows streamed on the platform for the first time. The platform saw a total of 189 million video views on the official Eurovision account during the two weeks leading up to the Grand Final.

3.3 million unique viewers watched the Grand Final live on the platform with 5.1 live streams in total. The Semi-Finals were streamed nearly 4 million times. 9.2 million engagement actions (such as liking, commenting etc) took place on TikTok in the week of the Contest.

In the same week, 42.3 million unique viewers across 232 countries and territories watched content on the official YouTube channel.

The number watching the Grand Final on YouTube rose nearly 50% year on year to 7.6 million unique viewers for the live show. The most views were in winning country Ukraine with over 2.2 million views to date.

63% of all those watching on YouTube were aged 18–34 years old.

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Over 8 million Tweets about the Contest were sent during the event week, doubling the record total set in 2021.

In total, videos on the 4 social channels were watched over 284 million times during the week of the event.

Additionally, between 1 and 15 May the Contest’s official social media accounts generated 22 million engagement actions on posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

Content on the official Facebook page reached 24 million people with a further 13.5 million people reached on Instagram where posts were seen over 255 million times.***

'We couldn’t be happier to see the success of the Eurovision Song Contest across all our Members’ channels and on our digital platforms this year, ' said the ESC’s Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl.

'Once again, we have seen the enormous popularity of the Contest among young audiences, some of whom are discovering the event for the first time. The Eurovision Song Contest truly has global appeal demonstrated by the millions watching in every territory on earth and millions more interacting on social media.'

The Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Italian Member Rai on 10, 12 and 14 May. More information about the event, including full voting breakdowns, can be found at eurovision.tv.

*Russia, who were excluded from the competition in February, and Ukraine are not included in 2022’s figures which accounts for the overall drop from 183m reach in 2021. Ukraine was not measured this year. In 2021 together these two markets accounted for 29 million people reached, excluding these markets from the 2021 data shows that 2022 reach is up 7 million on 2021 in a comparable number of countries.

**Source: Results produced by EBU and based on Glance and relevant partners’ data and EBU Members data.

Please note the following participating countries are not included in the TV analysis as either they do not have TV audience measurement systems or our broadcaster is not measured: Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Israel, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino and Ukraine.

***Source: YouTube ESC page, Hootsuite for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter – TikTok for TikTok & platform data.

📺 Watch: All 40 Songs Official Recap

Follow the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook channels – and subscribe to the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast.