'The Tourist', 'The Responder' and 'Peaky Blinders' give BBC iPlayer its strongest ever quarter
Hit BBC dramas The Tourist, The Responder and Peaky Blinders have helped streaming service iPlayer achieve its strongest ever quarter.
From January to March this year, viewers streamed programmes a record 1.83 billion times, in addition to the millions of people who watched the dramas on broadcast TV.
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The huge streaming figures are 100 million more than the same period last year and were thanks to a strong drama offering of high-performing new shows and returning series.
Australian Outback thriller The Tourist, which starred Jamie Dornan, has offered the most popular single episode of the year so far with viewers streaming the series debut 6.1 million times, and the boxset 32 million times.
The top 10 series episodes of the quarter also include other new dramas The Responder (5.2m streams), This is Going to Hurt (4m streams), Four Lives (3.8m streams), The Rules of the Game (3.5m streams) and Chloe (3.2m streams).
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So far, the strongest performing boxset is the return of Lord Sugar's reality show The Apprentice which has been streamed 33 million times.
Also in the top 10 of boxsets are Peaky Blinders (30m streams), the Winter Olympics (29m streams), and Killing Eve (15m streams).
The BBC recently announced that The Tourist and The Responder, a police drama starring Martin Freeman, would return for second series thanks to strong performances.
However, Peaky Blinders and Killing Eve both aired their final series this year, with viewers expressing their disappointment at the Killing Eve ending which saw Villanelle, played by Jodie Comer, killed off in the final moments.
Dan McGolpin, director of BBC iPlayer, said: "BBC iPlayer is more popular than ever in 2022 and the rollout of a more modern look has helped the service to notch-up its best ever quarter across the first three months.
"A formidable and thrilling collection of brand new drama series feature heavily on the most-watched programme lists with The Tourist narrowly ahead of The Responder in first position for top episode and there has been a breath-taking choice available from the Winter Olympics to Green Planet, so it was fantastic to see the long-awaited return of The Apprentice make the top slot for total viewing across a full series.
"Together with the last-ever instalments of Peaky Blinders and Killing Eve landing towards the end of the quarter, two of iPlayer’s most popular programmes of all time, there really is something for everyone whether you’re in the mood for classic boxsets or brand new shows."
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