RTÉ's coverage of the FIFA World Cup semi-finals this week has scored record levels of audiences across television, streaming and digital platforms.
Tuesday's semi-final between Spain and France and Wednesday's semi-final between England and Argentina reached a combined 1.98 million unique viewers on a 1-minute reach basis, RTÉ said on Thursday.
The figures highlight the tournament's growing momentum ahead of the FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, which is set to be played in New Jersey this Sunday, July 19.
On Tuesday night, an average of 873,000 viewers tuned in to RTÉ2 to watch Spain's dramatic victory over France, accounting for a 61% share of the available audience. An additional 1.03 million streams were recorded on RTÉ Player.
On Wednesday night, an average of 949,000 viewers tuned in to RTÉ2 for England v Argentina, delivering a 60% share of the available audience. The match also generated 985,000 streams on RTÉ Player.
RTÉ noted that as the official Irish broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup, it is one of only a small number of public service broadcasters providing free-to-air coverage across television, radio and digital platforms, ensuring Irish audiences can follow the action whenever and wherever it suits them.
RTÉ Player has continued to break records throughout the tournament, surpassing the total number of streams recorded during the entire 2022 FIFA World Cup after the group stages alone. To date during the 2026 tournament, the platform has generated 21.3 million streams, with the final still to come, compared with 8.5 million streams across the whole tournament in 2022.
Declan McBennett, Head of Sport at RTÉ, said: "The level of engagement with both the FIFA World Cup and the GAA Championship again shows how important the relationship is between live sport and free-to-air television.
"RTÉ Sport is proud to bring the very best of national and global sport to a mass Irish audience and to make it accessible wherever people choose to watch, listen or follow along.
"To surpass 21 million streams on RTÉ Player during the tournament is a remarkable milestone and demonstrates the appetite among Irish audiences for major sporting events.
"With a huge weekend of sport still to come, we look forward to bringing viewers comprehensive coverage of both the FIFA World Cup Final and the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship."
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final will air on Sunday, July 19, from 2.15 pm Irish time on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. It will be followed by the FIFA World Cup Final, which will air on Sunday from 7 pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
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