ByPhil LeakeData journalist and Rachel StandishData analyst

Published

42 minutes ago

Fans across Britain have celebrated and lamented the World Cup's thrilling and tense moments in pubs, gatherings and living rooms nationwide. Yet certain locations have shown greater enthusiasm than others.

We examined BBC iPlayer streaming numbers to identify the areas where interest in the event has been strongest. The data includes all World Cup material on iPlayer such as live games, recaps and discussion shows but excludes fixtures aired solely on ITV.

The postcode map below illustrates the share of logged-in iPlayer users who viewed BBC World Cup material from 11 June to 7 July. Darker shades of green indicate stronger engagement levels.

London stands out as the main hub for tournament viewing, accounting for 13 of the top 14 postcode zones with the highest iPlayer activity in and near the capital.

Almost two-thirds (64%) of UK iPlayer accounts have accessed some World Cup content, yet this figure climbs close to 80% in leading districts such as Southall, Ilford and East London.

Beyond the capital, Manchester leads among non-London postcode districts, with Luton, Oldham and Birmingham following closely.

Nevertheless, fixtures featuring England and Scotland have highlighted clear differences in viewing habits on either side of the border.

Scottish homes have shown lower interest in England games compared with households in Wales and Northern Ireland, even though those nations did not qualify.

The reverse pattern appears in England. Neither of Scotland's BBC group-stage matches against Haiti and Brazil ranked among the five most-viewed games in English postcodes.

England's thrilling 3-2 victory over Mexico began at 02:00 BST on Monday and set new records for a live broadcast at that hour.

Unlike previous matches, viewers in London's eight central postcode zones did not watch live or via catch-up at the same rate as other regions.

Blackburn, Oldham, Bolton, Birmingham, Bradford, Sunderland and Wolverhampton instead featured in the top 10, while several London districts ranked outside the top 100.

Beyond home-nation games, kick-off schedules and prominent players have strongly affected audience numbers.

France's opening match versus Senegal, shown in a prime evening slot at 20:00 BST and starring Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, attracted the second-largest group-stage audience nationwide after England versus Ghana.

Portugal against DR Congo and Argentina versus Austria also drew large crowds thanks to their 18:00 BST starts and the star power of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Matches with the smallest audiences have typically involved lesser-known teams and started at midnight or later.

Signs of club-based loyalty are evident in several regions.

Among the 50 BBC matches up to the round of 16, Manchester showed the strongest relative interest in Portugal versus DR Congo and Norway's games with Ivory Coast and Iraq.

Portugal's squad features former Manchester United star Ronaldo and current captain Bruno Fernandes, while Norway is led by Manchester City's Erling Haaland.

A comparable trend appears in Liverpool, which ranked outside the top 40 overall yet entered the top 10 for Belgium versus Egypt and Netherlands matches against Tunisia and Sweden.

Egypt's Mo Salah recently ended a successful nine-year spell at Liverpool, and the Dutch squad includes three regular Reds players with captain Virgil van Dijk among them.

The clearest example of club allegiance emerged in Sunderland, which topped the list for Tunisia versus Netherlands, likely linked to striker Brian Brobbey's breakthrough with the Dutch side.

How we analysed viewing figures

The statistics cover BBC iPlayer streams from 11 June to 7 July.

Percentages show the share of signed-in UK users who watched any World Cup content or a particular match, relative to those who streamed any iPlayer programme during the period.

World Cup material covers full matches, highlights, analysis and additional programmes including visual podcasts and radio streams. Full matches shown on ITV are excluded.

A stream must exceed three seconds to count.

Signed-in accounts represent the majority of iPlayer viewing, though live TV audiences are not captured.

Last year's Ofcom report on the BBC indicated that traditional TV reached roughly twice as many UK adults as iPlayer during 2024-25.

Around one in six signed-in iPlayer accounts lack an attached postcode and are omitted from the maps. Many belong to children.

Additional reporting by Jess Carr