The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has announced the viewing statistics for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 that attracted a total of 131 million viewers across the 35 participating broadcasters – a loss of 35 million viewers on the 2025 contest in Basel.
Eurovision loses 35 million viewers
The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna, Austria achieved viewing figures of 131 million. A significant drop of 35 million viewers that watched the Basel contest last year. This amounted to a combined viewing share of 47.7% – again a loss of 5% since Basel. Although there is good news for the host broadcaster ORF. Austria achieved a record 4.4 million viewers. In terms of youth viewership for those aged 15-24, the viewing share totalled 54.8%. Overall the Grand Final achieved a viewing share of 50%+ across 14 of the 35 markets.
Much of the dwindling viewership can be attributed to the boycotting broadcasters. In the aftermath of the EBU General Assembly last December, a number of broadcasters formally withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. Due to concerns raised over Israel’s continued participation The Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia and Spain chose to boycott the contest. However, the broadcast of the live shows still aired in the The Netherlands. Local broadcaster NOS took on the responsibility in the absence of AVROTROS, with NTR providing the commentary team. Meanwhile, Iceland’s national broadcaster RÚV aired the three live shows on its secondary channel, RÚV 2.
Digital engagement increases
Online and digital engagement yields some positives away from the viewing statistics. The official Eurovision YouTube channel received 5.43 million unique viewers in the first 48hrs following the contest. An increase of 4.6% on Basel.
Further data from the official Eurovision social media platforms of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook reveals that during the entire Eurovision 2026 season from January 1 to May 30 content relating to Eurovision had 2.75 billion views. Instagram received over 1 billion views for the first time.
ROTW voting from over 140 nations
The EBU have also revealed that 148 nations voted as part of the ROTW vote. The top ten nations from outside the participating nations were – USA, The Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Türkiye, Hungary, UAE, and Mexico.
“In its 70th year it’s fantastic to see the impact the Eurovision Song Contest is having on young audiences globally and uniting the world across broadcast and digital platforms.
The hundreds of millions reached via our digital platforms also underlines the Eurovision Song Contest’s 70-year evolution from a “tv show” to a true global, cultural, multiplatform phenomenon. The streaming success of so many of this year’s songs, not least our winner “Bangaranga,” also emphasises the event’s unrivalled status as an instant worldwide launch platform for artists and songwriters.
The Eurovision Song Contest continues to command an extraordinarily strong share of audience, and importantly youth, in many markets, underlining the event’s unique ability to bring people together live at scale as viewing habits change.
While some of our figures are naturally lower without those of our five members who chose not to participate this year, we remain committed to doing everything possible to find pathways back for them in 2027.
Our congratulations go to ORF for a world-class event and we are excited to start work with BNT Bulgaria as we enter our eighth decade of being United by Music”
Martin Green CBE, (Director of Eurovision Song Contest)
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