•  162 million see 2023 Contest on public service media channels across Europe and beyond
•  Votes cast in 144 countries worldwide 
•  4.8 billion views of #Eurovision2023 on TikTok
•  540 million views of official videos on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
•  Official ESC 2023 playlist on Spotify - most-streamed Spotify playlist globally on Sunday 14 May

The 67th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) hosted by the BBC in Liverpool, on behalf of Ukraine, united audiences across the world on both linear and online platforms. 

The Eurovision Song Contest 2023, organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), reached 162 million people over the 3 live shows across 38 public service media markets.*

The viewing share of the Grand Final on Saturday 13 May was 40.9% and remains more than double the broadcast channel's average (17.4%). 

Speaking for the EBU, Noel Curran, EBU Director General said: “With hundreds of millions tuning in to the live shows on EBU Member channels and record-breaking numbers engaging with the songs and artists on our different digital platforms, the Eurovision Song Contest has never been more popular. Our thanks go to the BBC who worked closely with UA:PBC for organizing this incredible showcase of Ukrainian culture and the diversity of European music and creativity.”

The ESC’s Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl added: “The Eurovision Song Contest has proved, once again, that public service media has the power to unite the world through music with a global reach we are hugely proud of. We’re thrilled to see that every year more and more people around the world discover this special event and that it is providing a huge launchpad for new music.”

Host country the United Kingdom delivered their largest ESC audience on record, with an average of 9.9 million viewers watching the Grand Final on BBC One, up 12% on 2022, with a 63% share of viewers.

The Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie said: “We are all incredibly proud to deliver three amazing live shows for record-breaking audiences across globe. The numbers speak for themselves and are a testament to the hard work of our teams at the BBC and our colleagues in Ukraine. This was a Eurovision Song Contest like no other and we couldn’t have been more proud to showcase Ukraine and Liverpool to the rest of the world.”

The Contest once again proved hugely popular with younger audiences. Among 15–24-year-olds, the viewing share of the Grand Final was 53.5%, remaining four times higher than the broadcast channels average (13.8%).  

Sweden, who made history winning the Contest for a 7th time, delivered an average audience of 2.3 million viewers, accounting for 82.3% of all TV viewers in the country.

Last year’s winning country, Ukraine, delivered a viewing share of 19.7%.

"I am very glad that so many viewers all over the world have watched this year's unique Eurovision Song Contest,” said Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of Ukrainian EBU Member UA:PBC.

“We know well what massive efforts have been made to produce the shows at such a high level. I am convinced that they will become an example for future host countries of the Contest. I am proud of our collaboration with the BBC, hosting this Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine and showing the world the variety of Ukrainian and UK cultures."

In a third of markets (13 out of 39) the ESC claimed over 50% of the viewing share, led by Iceland with 98.7% and followed closely by other Nordic markets (Norway 87.8%, Finland 85.6%, and Sweden 82.3%).

7.6 million people watched the Grand Final live on the Official ESC YouTube channel with over 3.2 million live views of the Semi-Finals. 

On TikTok, the Eurovision Song Contest’s Official Entertainment Partner, the 3 live shows were viewed 4.8 million times.

 
VOTES FROM OVER 140 COUNTRIES

For the first time this year viewers watching in non-participating countries could also cast their votes online for their favourite songs, allowing viewers across the world to share in the Contest’s public service values of inclusivity, diversity, and universality. 

Votes were received from 144 countries in total, including the 37 taking part. 

Outside the participating countries, viewers in the United States, Canada, Kosovo, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Mexico, Hungary, Slovakia, UAE, Türkiye, and Chile cast the most votes online. 

RECORD ONLINE ENGAGEMENT 

Online the Eurovision Song Contest’s digital platforms saw record engagement. 

105 million unique accounts were reached on TikTok during the two weeks of the event.

TikTok also saw a total of 315 million video views on the official Eurovision account – up 40% year-on-year. There were further 53 million views of content in the days following the Grand Final. 

Videos on the platform using the hashtag #Eurovision2023 have been watched 4.8 billion times.**

45 million unique viewers across 232 countries and territories watched content on the official YouTube channel during the week of the Live Shows – up 2.7m on 2022.

32 million unique accounts were reached on Instagram – three times as many as in 2022.

Videos on the platform were seen 181 million times, while content on the ESC Facebook page was seen by 29 million people during the two event weeks – 5 million more than in 2022. 

In total, videos on the 4 social channels were watched nearly 540 million times during the weeks of the event - nearly double the amount seen in 2022.**

4 million tweets using the word “Eurovision” were sent on Twitter between the First Semi Final and the Grand Final.

MUSICAL SUCCESS

The Eurovision Song Contest continues to produce worldwide hits and promote music from across the participating nations in 2023. 

The official Eurovision Song Contest 2023 playlist on Spotify was the most-streamed Spotify playlist globally on Sunday 14 May.

The platform’s Global chart for all streaming across the world also saw 5 entries from 2023 break into the Top 200 on the same day.

Winning song “Tattoo”’s streaming tally of 4.2 million plays on the day after the Grand Final beat the previous highest total for 2021’s winner “Zitti E Buoni” by Måneskin, who recorded 3.9 million streams. The number of plays also set another record for Loreen, who became the first woman to win the Song Contest twice. She now has the highest number of streams ever achieved in a single day by a Swedish female artist. 

Contest runner-up “Cha Cha Cha” by Käärijä achieved the most daily Spotify streams of all time in Finland, with Finnish listeners pressing play on the Eurovision party-starter a massive 469,000 times on the day after the Grand Final. “Cha Cha Cha“ ended the week with 2.5m listens on Spotify Finland alone - which is the highest weekly tally of streams ever seen in Käärijä's native Finland.

On the Official ESC YouTube channel, videos featuring Loreen, including exclusive live performances and interviews, have received 31.4m views to date. Second placed Käärijä has had 31m views of all his exclusive performances and interviews to date.

WIDER IMPACT

While the full economic and social impact of hosting the event in Liverpool is still being evaluated, early data and figures from Merseyside Police suggest that an additional 500,000 visitors came to the city in the two weeks running up to the Contest.

This included over 1,100 journalists from more than 50 countries who came to cover the event onsite. Coverage of the event grew 20% year-on-year with over 150,000 articles written about the Eurovision Song Contest in May alone.

The Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by the BBC, on behalf of Ukraine’s EBU Member UA:PBC on 9, 11 and 13 May and broadcast in the 37 participating countries, Chile, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, USA, and online. More information about the event, including full voting breakdowns, can be found at eurovision.tv. 
 

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Finland, who came second in the competition. delivered their best audience since 2007 with 1.7 million viewers, up 71% on 2022.

Germany delivered the second largest audience of any market with an average of 7.4 million viewers watching the Grand Final, up 14% on 2022, while France’s audience rebounded, gathering an average of 3.5 million viewers, up 10% on 2022. 

Other markets that saw a share of audience higher than 50% were Armenia, Belgium Flanders, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Israel, Lithuania, Slovenia and host country, the United Kingdom.

Austria delivered its best audience since 2016 and Slovenia enjoyed their highest ratings since 2015. Viewership doubled and tripled in both countries, respectively.  

*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, Malta, and San Marino.
**Source: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok & platform data. (all stats between 30 April and 15 May)