England progressed to the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup in front of the largest UK audience of the tournament so far.
Jude Bellingham’s brace of goals knocked Norway out of the competition, with a peak of 16.8M viewers watching the 2-1 triumph on ITV1.
ITV’s coverage scored an average of 12.7M viewers, according to overnight Barb figures supplied by overnights.tv.
The game, which kicked off at 10 p.m. local time at the Miami Stadium, topped the previous peak of 15M viewers for England’s opening match against Croatia last month.
Although an impressive audience, the viewing figures did not come close to previous World Cup quarter-finals featuring England.
The 2022 game, in which England were beaten by France in Qatar, peaked with 21.3M viewers. The 2018 quarter-final in Russia was watched by a high of 20M, when England beat Sweden 2-0.
England’s frenetic 3-2 win over Mexico in the last 16 match of the 2026 World Cup was seen by 9M Brits in the small hours of the morning, the biggest TV audience ever for a live UK broadcast between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
