ITV scores with 18m audience for England quarter-final victory

The peak audience is the highest on any channel or streamer this year, surpassing the previous record of 16.4m viewers for England's opening group match against Croatia.

The UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster said that a sports schedule which also included Nations Championship Rugby and ITV Racing: Live from Newmarket saw it reach 25m TV viewers across the day.

The strong audience figures for the quarter-final come after ITV’s streaming platform ITVX achieved its strongest monthly performance to date in June 2026.

The platform recorded 468 million streams in June, and 21 million users across the month. This represents an increase of 173 million streams compared to June 2025, and an increase of 85 million streams over January 2026, which was the previous record month.

June also saw ITV’s highest peak audience of the year with 16.4 million viewers watching coverage of England vs Croatia on 17 June 2026.

Live football was a primary driver of streaming in June. In total, 16 of the top 20 live-streamed audiences on ITVX were for World Cup matches.

Love Island continues to be the top single title on ITVX in 2026, with the proportion of the audience now coming from streaming rising to 64% of the total audience, up from 53% for the same period last year. 

Sky recently officially agreed terms to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment for £1.6bn. Discover more here.