David Farnor | On 07, Jan 2021

BBC iPlayer racked up a record number of streams this Christmas, with requests up 16 per cent over the festive fortnight.

New dramas The Serpent and Black Narcissus, EastEnders, Call The Midwife and Spider-Man: Homecoming helped smash BBC iPlayer records for viewing, with a total of 245 million requests (views and/or downloads) between 21st December 2020 and 3rd January 2021.

New Year’s Day was the biggest day in that time, with 21.2 million streams recorded, the most popular New Year ever on iPlayer (up 18 per cent year-on-year), when viewers enjoyed a range of content – including the box set of The Serpent, which early data suggests will become one of the BBC’s most-binged dramas of the year.

There were also 7.93 million unique browsers on New Year’s Day – breaking the record for unique browsers visiting iPlayer in a single day. This beats the 7.8 million set on 31st October – when further lockdown restrictions in England were announced.

On BBC iPlayer, the dramatic Christmas Day episode of EastEnders topped the tree of most popular episodes over the holidays, with more than 1.5 million streams in the festive fortnight. The series itself was the most popular programme over the whole period, with more than 13.8 million streams.

Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer said: “The unparalleled range of programmes on BBC iPlayer delivered a record-breaking Christmas this year. More people chose a personalised version of the BBC and sought out content on a scale we’ve not seen before from the breadth of entertainment and escapism available.”

 

Top 20 individual episodes per title (21st Dec to 3rd Jan)

EastEnders (25/12/2020) – 1,524,000

Call the Midwife (Christmas Special 2020) – 1,487,000

Spider-Man: Homecoming – 1,459,000

Black Narcissus – 1,322,000

The Serpent – 1,019,000

Mrs Brown’s Boys (2020 Specials – Mammy of the People) – 962,000

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks – 941,000

Strictly Come Dancing (Season 18 Christmas Special) – 883,000

Gavin & Stacey (Christmas Special 2019) – 832,000

Alicia Keys Rocks New Year’s Eve – 799,000

The Queen – 797,000

Happy New Year Live! – 780,000

Zog and the Flying Doctors – 775,000

Match of the Day (26/12/2020) – 741,000

His Dark Materials: Season 2, Episode 7 – 643,000

Ghosts: The Ghost of Christmas – 634,000

The Great British Sewing Bee (2020 Specials – Celebrity Christmas Special) – 619,000

Dunkirk – 619,000

Have I Got 30 Years for You – 609,000

Motherland: Christmas Special – 589,000

Top 20 programmes overall (21st Dec to 3rd Jan)

EastEnders – 13,852,000

Hey Duggee – 8,034,000

Bing – 5,690,000

The Serpent – 3,935,000

Gavin & Stacey – 3,790,000

Black Narcissus – 2,899,000

Breakfast – 2,877,000

Mrs Brown’s Boys – 2,761,000

His Dark Materials – 2,653,000

The Vicar of Dibley – 2,519,000

Doctor Who – 2,425,000

Call the Midwife – 2,392,000

Numberblocks – 2,363,000

Not Going Out – 2,173,000

Match of the Day – 2,128,000

Spiral – 1,982,000

Waterloo Road – 1,951,000

MasterChef: The Professionals – 1,888,000

Ghosts – 1,709,000

Waffle the Wonder Dog – 1,663,000

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