England crashed out of the World Cup last night after a masterful display from Argentina’s Lionel Messi with vast swathes of the nation tuning in.

A peak of 21.5 million viewers and average 15 million on BBC One made England’s semi-final against Argentina comfortably the most-watched game of the World Cup, and most-watched UK broadcast of the year so far. The BBC said the figure was the biggest live TV audience for a broadcaster since 2021, when England played Italy in the Euros soccer tournament final. The match was streamed 12.6 million times across BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app, according to the corporation’s numbers.

Last night’s rating was well ahead of the 2-1 triumph against Norway in the previous round, which peaked with 16.8 million, according to Barb figures supplied by overnights.tv.

The game kicked off at 8 p.m. local time, satisfying fans who have been frustrated by later kick offs and surely a contributor to the top ratings. Many of England’s games have kicked off at either 10 p.m., or, in the case of Mexico, in the middle of the night. That frenetic 3-2 win over Mexico was seen by 9 million Brits in the small hours of the morning, the biggest TV audience ever for a live UK broadcast between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.

While England were chasing their first World Cup for 60 years last night, it was sadly to be heartbreak once again. After going 1-0 up through Anthony Gordon, the magnificent GOAT Messi set up two goals in the final 10 minutes to lead Argentina to victory.

Argentina now face Spain in Sunday’s final, while England will compete in the third placed play off against France the day before.