England’s dramatic World Cup victory against Mexico led to a record-breaking broadcast across the board for the BBC. Over 11m BBC iPlayer requests contributed to the largest ever day on record for the streaming service, hitting 48m requests in total on Monday, while the 3-2 win at the Estadio Azteca
Matt Hardy
Tuesday 07 July 2026 1:15 pm | Updated: Tuesday 07 July 2026 1:16 pm
England’s dramatic World Cup victory against Mexico led to a record-breaking broadcast across the board for the BBC.
Over 11m BBC iPlayer requests contributed to the largest ever day on record for the streaming service, hitting 48m requests in total on Monday, while the 3-2 win at the Estadio Azteca attracted a peak live audience of 9.1m in real-time.
It was also a BBC sporting record for the 2-4am time slot, with the game in Mexico City topping the 3m who stayed up to watch Mo Farah win the 10,000m gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski said: “These are phenomenal figures and a brilliant reflection of what happens when the nation comes together behind England.
“Millions of fans sacrificed a night’s sleep to witness an unforgettable World Cup victory, while millions more caught up as soon as they woke up. It was one of those truly special sporting moments that people simply couldn’t afford to miss.”
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ITV will show England’s quarter-final against Norway, which is set to kick off at 10pm on Saturday night, while the semi-finals and final will be shown across both free-to-air broadcasters.
The BBC broadcast a complete, spoiler-free repeat of the match on Monday morning which peaked at 1.1m viewers, while the highlights have been streamed nearly 6m times.
Added Kay-Jelski: “From watching live on BBC One and iPlayer to through BBC Sport’s live pages, highlights, app and social channels, audiences turned to the BBC in record numbers to experience the drama however they wanted.
“And with England now just two wins away from the World Cup final, we’re looking forward to bringing audiences every moment of what promises to be another unforgettable chapter in this historic journey”.
In all, the match – in which Jude Bellingham netted a brace and Harry Kane added a third – produced a record day for BBC iPlayer, the sport website and BBC Sport’s social video views.
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