More than a third of UK population watched Glastonbury 2023 on BBC

With 200,000 fans enjoying the action from Worthy Farm itself, over a third of the UK population – let’s just take that in for a second – watched the Beeb’s programming, with over 40 hours available to viewers.

That’s up 7% on last year across linear TV, and not surprisingly Sir Elton John’s ‘unbelievable’ headline set on Sunday captured most people’s attention.

The Rocket Man legend’s performance pulled in the biggest ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury set, racking up a five minute peak overnight audience of 7.6m.

The average audience across the whole of his career spanning show was 7.3m, while the performance also aired on BBC Radio 2, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.

In a statement, Lorna Clarke, the BBC’s Director of Music, said: ‘What an incredible way to end this year’s Glastonbury festival!

‘Elton John’s set will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most epic performances ever to light up the Pyramid Stage and was watched by a record 7.6 million people on BBC One.

‘I’m so delighted the BBC and our superb teams were able to share every bit of the magic from Worthy Farm during the weekend with audiences at home.

‘People can catch Elton John’s unmissable set and all our other content now on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer, which also has over 90 other sets from across the Glastonbury stages.’

Meanwhile, Lewis Capaldi’s and Lizzo’s Pyramid Stage performances on Saturday had a peak BBC One audience peak 2.4m and average 2.3m viewers.

For this year’s Legends slot on Sunday, Yusuf/Cat Stevens drew in a peak of 3m and average of 2.3m, which was BBC Two’s biggest audience of the year, with Rick Astley and Blondie bringing in a peak audience of 2.5m and an average of 2.1m on BBC One.

This year’s record breaking viewership comes after the BBC previously shared record figures for the festival, which boasted Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney as one of the 2022 headliners.

The broadcaster said at the time: ‘Sir Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury performance on BBC One had a peak audience of 3.9m and an average audience of 2.7m and Diana Ross’ performance on BBC One had a peak audience of 3.8m and an average audience of 3.1m.’

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