This year there have been 5.3 billion requests to stream content on iPlayer across January to November, 33 per cent ahead of the same period last year, and already 850 million requests higher than the whole of 2019.
Most Popular Series on iPlayer so far this year:
Normal People - 62,706,000
Killing Eve (Series 3) - 39,344,000
MasterChef (Series 16) - 22,206,000
The Split (Series 3) - 18,939,000
Silent Witness (Series 23) - 17,181,000
The Secret She Keeps - 16,866,000
Life - 15,838,000
I May Destroy You - 15,838,000
This Country (Series 3) - 15,341,000
The Nest - 14,684,000
The top ten most popular episodes per series on iPlayer so far this year:
Killing Eve (S3E1) - 7,398,000
Normal People (E1) - 6,378,000
The Nest (E1) - 4,105,000
Dracula (E1) - 3,489,000
The Split (S2E1) - 3,458,000
The Secret She Keeps (E1) - 3,336,000
This Country (S3E1) - 3,072,000
Roadkill (E1) - 2,998,000
Life (E1) - 2,891,000
The Salisbury Poisonings (E1) - 2,670,000
Dan McGolpin, controller of BBC iPlayer, says: “It’s been a tough year for so many of us but through two national lockdowns and many difficult months BBC iPlayer has been there to keep us entertained and well informed wherever you are throughout the UK, seeing 5 billion requests for the first time ever.
“It’s pleasing to see the sensational adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People take top slot as the biggest series of the year and there have been other brand new drama series among the most popular, such as Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You, The Nest and The Secrets She Keeps as well as hugely popular returners like Killing Eve and The Split.
“Top comedy series was the third instalment of This Country and top entertainment series was MasterChef, with Strictly yet to complete its run. There’s a series waiting for us all on BBC iPlayer this Christmas and plenty of films to enjoy before the new year when we will be widening choice even further as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air returns to the BBC and Pretty Little Liars arrives for the first time.”