REVEALED: How many viewers tuned into the World Cup final on Irish television?

After a thrilling 64 games airing live across all RTÉ platforms, it came down to one of the most exciting World Cup finals in living memory as Argentina and France battled it right out to the bitter end in a penalty shootout which resulted in the world's greatest player winning the ultimate prize and lifting the World Cup trophy. 

Yesterday's World Cup Final saw record numbers of 780,000 (59% share) on RTÉ2 and also 478,000 live streams on RTÉ Player. The final peaked at 17.54 when 1.030M viewers sat on the edge of their seat as Messi went up against Mbappe in a nail-biting penalty shootout. 

Over the four-week period, record numbers tuned into over 200 hours of World Cup coverage across television, player and radio live from Qatar showcasing the best that football had to offer. The road to the final saw huge audiences as Argentina’s semi-final victory over Croatia was the most-watched match on RTÉ2 which had an average audience of 784,000. England v France was in third overall place with a 760,000 average audience. The second semi-final between France v Morocco was the fourth biggest match on RTÉ2 scoring 632,000 viewing average.  

Football fans tuned into RTÉ Player in their droves as 8.5 million total streams were recorded across the tournament. This is an increase of 240% on live streams of the Euro 2020 tournament and a 47% increase on the World Cup tournament in 2018. Yesterday's World Cup Final had 478k live streams with viewers tuning in from all around the country to make it a record-breaking tournament for RTÉ Player. 

Group Head of RTÉ Sport, Declan McBennett, said: "The “Messi Mbappe” World Cup brought about audience engagement at unprecedented levels and is a tribute to the professionalism of those involved from presenters, pundits and production teams. The comprehensive coverage of primarily a wonderful sporting tournament while addressing the backdrop of social and political issues was embraced by the audience and will live long in the memory."