Most viewed Eurovision Grand Finals since 2015 on YouTube

In 2015, the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final was officially live streamed on YouTube for the first time.

Whilst it was originally able to be viewed worldwide, 2016 saw the introduction of geo-blocking in regions where another network has exclusive rights, including Australia.

Fortunately for us, the full Grand Final, semi-finals, and individual performances usually become available worldwide to rewatch within hours of the show finishing, often by the following day.

In the lead up to this year's contest, we've decided to take a look at the most watched Grand Finals on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel since 2015 as of 11 May 2026.

It's important to note that four of our Top 10 have been broadcast live twice on YouTube. The 2015, 2016 and 2018 contests were all re-broadcast as part of the EurovisionAgain initiative where past contests were shown on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel, initially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2019 Grand Final was re-broadcast in the lead-up to the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest as part of Eurovision Watch Party.

10. Eurovision 2015 - 4,579,732 views

Re-broadcast on 11 April 2020 and 25 April 2026 as part of Eurovision Again.

9. Eurovision 2018 - 4,776,104 views (original version) + 258,741 views (Eurovision Again)

Re-broadcast on 6 June 2020 as part of Eurovision Again as a separate upload. Both copies remain on YouTube.

8. Eurovision 2016 - 9,512,342 views

Re-broadcast on 2 May 2020 as part of Eurovision Again.

7. Eurovision 2017 - 11,443,057 views

6. Eurovision 2023 - 13,396,265 views

5. Eurovision 2025 - 13,688,607 views

4. Eurovision 2024 - 13,817,486 views

3. Eurovision 2019 - 15,913,404 views (original version) + 310,491 views (Eurovision Watch Party)

Re-broadcast on 16 May 2021 as part of Eurovision Watch Party as a separate upload. Both copies remain on YouTube. The original version can be found here.

A key reason for the popularity of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final was the rise of younger viewers, with engagement increasing among 15–24 year olds and more than 70% of people watching official Eurovision content on YouTube aged under 35. The contest also benefited from expanded online accessibility in markets such as the United States, helping grow its worldwide digital reach.

The final featured several viral and highly streamed entries that generated enormous interest online. Dutch winner Duncan Laurence achieved global success with Arcade, while Italy’s Mahmood was the most-searched Eurovision act on YouTube before the Grand Final with Soldi. Additional attention came from the appearance of pop icon Madonna as the interval act, which sparked widespread discussion and online traffic despite mixed reviews.

2. Eurovision 2021 - 18,482,593 views

Driven largely by the anticipation surrounding Eurovision’s return after the cancellation of the 2020 contest due to the pandemic, the 2021 Eurovision Grand Final is the second most-watched on YouTube. The event attracted a total television audience of 183 million viewers, while also recording exceptionally strong digital engagement, particularly among younger audiences. Viewership among 15–24 year olds increased by 7%, highlighting Eurovision’s growing appeal with younger demographics and the increasing importance of platforms such as YouTube in driving audience engagement.

A major factor behind the contest’s online popularity was the success of Italian winners Måneskin, whose winning song Zitti E Buoni became the most-watched live performance on the official Eurovision YouTube channel, surpassing 46 million views within just 12 days. Unlike some years where there is a clear favourite before the show, the 2021 contest had no heavily predicted winner, helping maintain suspense and keeping audiences engaged online until the final results were announced.

1. Eurovision 2022 -19,047,988 views

The 2022 Eurovision Grand Final is currently the most-watched in the contest’s history on YouTube, attracting a record 7.6 million unique live viewers — an increase of almost 50% compared to the previous year. The record was fuelled by enormous digital engagement, with 42.3 million people watching content on the official Eurovision channel during contest week. Much of this growth reflected changing viewing habits, particularly among younger audiences, with 63% of YouTube viewers aged between 18 and 34.

The year’s exceptional online reach was also driven by the wider cultural and social context surrounding the contest. Ukraine had been invaded by Russia only three months earlier generating huge global interest and solidarity voting that encouraged audiences to watch the winning performance live. Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the competition with a record-breaking 439 public vote points.

Due to copyright agreements, the EBU only has ownership of contests aired since 2004, with individual host broadcasters owning the rights to those before that. Whilst Grand Finals from years prior to 2004 have been shown on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel during EurovisionAgain they have only been made available to view for a short time.

Full broadcasts of the Grand Finals between 2004 and 2014 were gradually uploaded to the channel between November 2019 and November 2021, with the most popular currently being the 2009 show from Moscow which currently has 1,718,782 views

Interestingly the only version of the 2006 Grand Final available on YouTube is the HD Cut. This high definition footage was filmed as part of a research experiment carried out by the European Broadcasting Union, ERT, the Institute for Broadcasting Technology in Munich and the research and development laboratories of Rai and the BBC, and was never intended to be broadcast.

When it premiered on 1 August 2021, the EBU stated - "We’re excited to share this experimental HD footage with you for reference. It is not intended to replace the original show which will be uploaded to the Eurovision YouTube Channel soon." Almost five years later we are still waiting!

For continued updates on all the Eurovision Song Contest news follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Bluesky, Threads and TikTok. All links at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet