The World Snooker Tour has revealed impressive figures for TV and online viewership of the recent World Snooker Championship.
The World Snooker Championship final between Luca Brecel and Mark Selby was watched by a huge TV audience of 3.6 million on BBC Two on Monday night.
Belgium’s Brecel became the first player from mainland Europe to conquer the Crucible and just the fourth player from outside the United Kingdom after Canada’s Cliff Thorburn, Ireland’s Ken Doherty, and Australia’s Neil Robertson.
A thrilling contest, in which Selby became the first player to make a 147 during a world final, reached an exciting conclusion in Sheffield.
Selby strung five frames together from 16-10 down to trail by one only for Brecel to hold his nerve and take the last two frames, finishing in style with a century break.
The TV figure for the final is down, however, from the peak audience of 4.5 million who tuned in to watch Ronnie O’Sullivan win a record-equalling seventh worth title in 2022.
Overall, the 17-day World Snooker Championship had a total TV audience reach on the BBC of 13.3 million, averaging at 599,000.
The 2023 event set a new record on BBC online with 23.3 million streams watched, breaking the previous record of 22.5 million set in 2022.
CLICK HERE: Brilliant Luca Brecel wins World Snooker Championship
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery achieved strong figures in the UK across its direct-to-consumer products versus 2022.
Eurosport and discovery+ streaming platforms generating an average +7% uplift in video views and a +37% rise in minutes streamed across the duration of the tournament.
Fans in Belgium tuned in to follow the progress of local hero Brecel, with audiences on Eurosport driving the highest ever achieved in Belgium and a 177% average increase compared to 2022.
WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “These are outstanding figures and we are delighted to see that snooker and the World Championship remain incredibly popular for a vast audience in the UK and across Europe.”
“Congratulations to the BBC and Eurosport on their fabulous coverage of our biggest event.
“Brecel’s performance was astonishing – a young champion from Europe who plays in such a flamboyant fashion will inspire many new fans and players.”
Featured photo credit: WST
Very healthy figures. The World Championship is probably the BBC’s 4th most popular annual sporting event after Wimbledon, The FA Cup and the Six Nations.
The drop from last year underlines the pulling power of Ronnie O’Sullivan to draw in casual viewers.
I liked what I saw from Tony Drago yesterday. He whizzed round at an AST of 13 seconds and knocked in two fifties. A 95 per cent pot success rate was also pleasing as he’s been away from seniors snooker for a few years.
The final might be down from last year Ronnie Vs Judd but 3.6 million is pretty great to be honest and I’d love to know how many were watching Eurosport as well for the final could easily push the viewing figures for the final well over 6 million if Eurosport included ..the 3.6 million was BBC alone ,whom As a snooker fan disappoint with their overall coverage of snooker in general
Eurosport is a minority channel in the UK in terms of its reach so no chance they would help push the audience towards 6m.
The BBC do a fantastic job with snooker, bridging the gap between the casual viewer and hardcore fan to great effect. Hazel Irvine is the gold standard for presenting. IMG do an excellent job with the short featurettes and the statistical data provided this season has been a marked improvement on recent campaigns. The commentary team does lack a journalistic bent but John Virgo remains a strong number one with his forthright remarks punctuated by moments of levity. Stephen Hendry and Shaun Murphy are top notch analysts.
last year was 4.5m
2021 was 4.1m
2023 3.6m is average. which is expected because selby is a boring cunt and brecel is bald fat short and ugly.