The EBU has released the viewing figures for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest from around the world. The contest in Vienna, Austria saw 131 million people tune in for this year’s show, a drop of around 35 million on last year’s contest, but the figures for social media engagement and countries voting were up on the Basel edition last year.
EBU releases figures
The viewing figures for the 2026 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria have been released by the EBU, and the headline figure sees a drop in viewership of around 35 million viewers. Across all the live shows in Vienna, the contest recorded a viewership figure of 131 million, a viewing share of 42.6% as reported by the EBU.
This represents a 5% drop in viewing share globally when compared with last year’s contest in Basel. However, host country Austria saw their highest Eurovision Song Contest audience ever, with over 4.4 million people watching. That represents an increase of 1.2 million viewers in Austria on last years edition of the show.
Votes were recorded for the contest from 148 countries, up 2 on last year’s edition in Basel, Switzerland and fans from over 75 countries bought tickets to see the shows in person. The EBU notes that the average share figures for this year’s contest in Vienna is higher than every edition of the contest held between 2009 and 2023.
Aside from the countries competing in this year’s contest, fans from the United States, The Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Türkiye, Hungary, United Arab Emirates and Mexico voted the most, according to the data released by the EBU.
It is also worth noting that the figures from Albania, Armenia, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Malta, North Macedonia and San Marino were not included in the EBU data release, as they either do not have TV audience measurement systems, or the competing broadcaster does not measure the figures.
Did the boycott have an effect?
Ireland’s broadcaster RTÉ, The Netherlands’ AVROTROS, Slovenian RTVSLO and Spanish broadcaster RTVE all decided not to broadcast the contest following their decision to withdraw after the December 2025 general assembly decision to not remove the Israeli broadcaster KAN from the competition. The Dutch sister broadcaster NPO did broadcast the event on NPO 1 and NPO Radio 2. Iceland’s broadcaster RÚV, whilst also withdrawing from participation in the 2026 event, did broadcast the contest in May in the usual way.
The YouTube stream of the contest gathered 5.43 million, an increase of 4.6% from Basel according to the EBU.
Not all bad news for Eurovision?
The host country of Austria saw their highest Eurovision Song Contest audience ever, with over 4.4 million people tuning in. Similarly, winning country Bulgaria’s broadcaster BNT recorded a viewing share of 46%, their highest since their debut in 2005.
Martin Green, Director of The Eurovision Song Contest says:
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.
ORF’s Martin Krön, Executive Producer of the 2026 contest says:
It has only been a few weeks since the Eurovision Song Contest at the Stadthalle in Vienna, but it was the TV event of the year! We can already see what a wonderful impact it had: we reached and delighted millions around the world with our breathtaking shows, fulfilled artists’ dreams of performing on one of Europe’s most modern and impressive stages, and gave Austria and Europe the opportunity to immerse in a world that appreciates tolerance and humanity, as well as artistic diversity.
Australia (SBS), Denmark (DR), Finland (Yle), Greece (ERT) and Italy (Rai) were all described by the EBU as having “standout Grand Final audiences”. Australia recording 464,000 viewers, their best figure since 2015 and an increase of around 299,000 viewers of the final in Basel which they failed to qualify to. Finland recorded a 92.8% share, with 1.8 million viewers tuning in, their best recorded figure since 2007 and the highest share ever recorded. Greece similarly recorded a 2.8 million viewers, their highest audeince since 2011.
A hit on social media
This year’s contest was a hit on social media, according to the EBU. They note that across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, official Eurovision content generated more than 2.75 billion views during the season (January 1 – May 30).
Short form video content on YouTube hit a record 153.4 million views, 31% more than last year, and the official Eurovision TikTok, where 37% of the audience is between 18 and 24 years old, reached 4 million followers for the first time. Over 1 billion views were given to the official Eurovision Instagram this year between January 1st and May 30th, 3.25% more than in 2025, and Facebook similarly recorded an increase in views, up 33.6% on the same period as last year.
Rob Holley, Head of Digital for the Eurovision Song Contest says:
The continued growth of our digital platforms highlights how Eurovision is successfully connecting with younger audiences around the world. By embracing short-form content and platform-native storytelling together with our Members and partners, we are creating new ways to discover, share and participate in the Contest. Eurovision continues to engage audiences year-round across every generation and is setting a benchmark for how to build cultural relevance and fan engagement in the digital era.
In total, the official Eurovision Song Contest’s social media channels recorded over 39.3 million engagements during the week of the contest (11th-17th May), just beating last year’s total of 39.1 million.
A success for DARA
The winning song from Bulgaria’s DARA, ‘Bangaranga’, outperformed last year’s winning song ‘Wasted Love’, with 21% more listeners recorded on Apple Music during the week of the contest (12th-18th May) according to the EBU. The song also achieved a top 100 placing in 48 countries on Apple Music by the 19th May and featured in the Top 10 of 23 countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Cyprus, Germany, Finland, Greece, Malta, Norway and Sweden, where it reached the #1 spot.
‘Bangaranga’ also reached the Number 1 spot in the Spotify Daily Charts of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine. DARA’s winning track also placed Top 5 in Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Poland, and made the Top 10 in Czechia, Norway, Romania and the United Kingdom. The song was played over 3 million times on Spotify on the day of the Grand Final, making it the 12th most played song globally for that day on the streaming service.
Vienna sees effect of hosting on tourism
Fans from 75 different countries bought tickets to see a live show or dress rehearsal show at the Wien Stadhalle during the week of this year’s contest, with approximately 100,000 people visiting the arena. The early data reported by the EBU shows that around 320,000 people attended Eurovision related events during the week of the Song Contest in Vienna, with the Eurovision Village (Rathausplatz) receiving over 150,000 visitors.
Host country of Austria made the most ticket purchases to see a show in the Wien Stadhalle, making up around 58% of all tickets sold for the shows, with Germany and United Kingdom placing 2nd and 3rd respectively in the rankings. Switzerland took the 4th slot in terms of tickets sold to fans travelling to the contest, and although having never been a competing country, the United States took the 5th spot according to data from the EBU.
What do you make of the figures from the EBU? Would the countries that withdrew from the contest have made a difference? Are you excited for next year’s show? As always, let us know what you think on social media and be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky, and ZOOP before we head to Bulgaria for next year’s contest!
News Source: European Broadcasting Union
Photo Credit: EBU / Sarah Louise Bennett
Rory Gannon 
Michelle