Normal People and Killing Eve are iPlayer’s biggest successes of the year
The BBC adaptation of Normal people, Sally Rooney’s romantic novel has been iPlayer’s biggest success of the year so far, closely followed by Killing Eve.
Between the 1 January and the end of November there were 62 million views of Normal people on iPlayer.
The romantic drama tops a record-breaking year for iPlayer, with the BBC’s streaming service seeing more than 5 billion annual requests.
The increase in viewers follows a surge in demand for streaming services since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with many people spending more time at home.
Killing Eve’s third series is the second most popular series of the year, with 39m requests.
The Killing Eve series saw the biggest single episode of the year so far on iPlayer, with 7.4m requests to stream the first episode.
Normal People’s debut episode took the second spot, with over 6.3m.
Dan McGolpin, controller of BBC iPlayer, said: “It’s been a tough year for so many of us but through two national lockdowns and many difficult months BBC iPlayer has been there to keep us entertained and well informed wherever you are throughout the UK, seeing 5 billion requests for the first time ever. It’s pleasing to see the sensational adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People take top slot as the biggest series of the year”.
Other popular shows this year with viewers include: The Secrets She Keeps, Mike Bartlett’s Life, I May Destroy You, and The Nest.