Love Island final breaks ITV streaming records

ITV recorded a total of 3.4 million viewers watched the Love Island final across ITV2 and ITV Hub last night, making it the biggest finale since 2019, and an increase of 100,000 viewers year-on-year.

The closing episode broke streaming records according to the broadcaster, with over 250 million streams this series, making it the most-watched series ever on ITV Hub.

The series averaged 2.7 million viewers across the eight-week run, making it the second-highest rating after the 2019 series, ITV confirmed.

However, when catch-up data and ITV Hub audiences across all devices were factored in, ITV noted the consolidated series average currently stood at 4.6 million. The second highest-rated series to date.

According to BARB overnight figures, the live linear audience peaked on ITV2 at 3.17 million viewers in the individuals 4+ category at 10.30pm when Ekin-Su and Davide were crowned winners of the series.

During the 9pm to 10.30pm timeslot, BARB figures showed the average audience on ITV2 for the last episode of the reality dating show was 2.82 million, with the highest share of the timeslot with 18.9% share (individuals 4+).

For the adults 16- 34 audience, the final episode garnered an average audience of 1.20 million, a peak of 1.36 million at 10.30pm and a 60.8% share of viewing in the timeslot, per the overnight data.

Consolidated average audience viewing on a TV set (not all devices) for the the series from 6 June to 24 July was 3.14 million, according to data produced by BARB and Mediatel Connected.

Sponsors of the show this year included an official coffee partner (Emmi Caffe Latte), network sponsor (O2), returning beauty sponsor (Boots), its first pre-loved fashion sponsor (eBay replacing fast fashion sponsors), and its first “fan partner” in Reddit. Just Eat has been the lead sponsor since 2019.

ITV and Lifted Entertainment (part of ITV studios) have confirmed there will be two series on ITV2 and ITVX next year, making a total of sixteen weeks of Love Island content.

The first series will start in South Africa in the New Year and the second series will take place in Mallorca in the summer.

Read more on Love Island series eight here: 

Love Island tops UK most-viewed programmes

Love Island attracts average audience of more than 3m so far

Love Island opens series 8 with 2.8 million peak

Love Island series 8 ‘will be the true litmus test of its popularity’

• Upfronts 2026: Channel 4 pitches ‘scale and substance’, JCDecaux launches ‘Real World Media’ positioning
  The Media Leader will be publishing news, highlights, and takeaways from media owners’ upfront events this autumn. Among the announcements, Amazon has joined Barb’s CFlight, Mail Metro Media has unveiled new branding, and Netflix made its UK upfront debut.
• Roku study shows bright future for home screen and interactive ads
  Roku has brought its VOD Evolution Study to the UK for the first time, and The Media Leader asked two leading media planners to assess the results. They agreed with consumers: home screen and interactive ads have a bright future.
• ITV’s generative AI ads feature attracts 16 new-to-TV advertisers in debut year
  The brands that have used the tool include a variety of small business types, from dentists and gardening companies to local councils. The campaigns have primarily run on ITVX.
• Lots of bigs and lots of littles: Lumen finds cumulative attention drives brand outcomes
  Research conducted by Lumen in partnership with Amazon Ads finds that cumulative attention is 8x more impactful in delivering brand lift than frequency, and that TV is an important driver of cumulative attention.
• Channel 4 B Corp TV winners: “This is going to irritate the rest”
  TOTM and Holy Moly tell The Media Leader what they expect from Sunday’s Channel 4 ad-break takeover, while Channel 4 Sales sets out its ambitions for the scheme.