Soaps, Sport, Drama and Entertainment among the most streamed in 2023
2023 was the biggest year ever for RT Player, with the free live and on-demand streaming service on track to deliver a record 100 million streams*, 35 million streaming hours and reaching 1.8 million unique users per month by the end of the year.
The RT Player Top 10 reveals that Irish audiences love to stream a wide range of content from their daily consumption of soaps including EastEnders, Home & Away and Fair City, to critically acclaimed drama including KIN, Happy Valley and Love/Hate, and never miss a moment of live action sport from the Rugby World Cup to The All-Ireland Senior GAA Championship and the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Viewers accessed RT Player to binge home-grown documentaries including Gaelic in the Joy, Dr Cassidy's Casebook and The Case I Can't Forget were a hit with streamers, along with hit comedy series The Young Offenders, SisterS and Colin from Accounts. Viewers turned to RT Player for entertainment throughout the year to watch The Late Late Show, The Tommy Tiernan Show and First Dates Ireland. Oscar-nominated short film, An Irish Goodbye was the most streamed film of the year on RT Player. July 26th was the biggest day of the year on RT Player with over 250,000 hours of content streamed on the day that Katie McCabe led the Republic of Ireland in a crucial clash against Canada during the FIFA Women's World Cup.
RT Player offers a large selection of content for kids. Peppa Pig and Bluey were hits in 2023, along with Irish language programme Peppa Muc and award-winning Dizzy Deliveries the first programme to teach children Irish l mh signs.
RT Player Originals continued to launch new faces and formats online with home renovation series Relove My Space presented by Fionnuala Jones and Paul Kinsella taking the top spot in this category, and Anna Clifford's new series Ireland's Perfect Pubs which launched in October.
Soaps on RT Player including Fair City, EastEnders, Home and Away and Neighbours had more than 20 million streams in 2023. The most-watched episode of Fair City was from April 16th, when Halley discovered that Rafferty's meetings at McCoy's were not what they seemed. The most watched episode of EastEnders was from January 5th, with the fallout from the Slater's New Year's Eve party coming to a dramatic conclusion.
Speaking about the success of RT Player over the past 12 months, Head of RT Player Aoife Byrne said: 2023 was the biggest year ever for RT Player - on target to reach 100 million streams by year end is double where we were a few years ago. Alongside the big live events like the Women's World Cup, The Sunday Game Live, The Rugby World Cup and The Late Late Toy Show, audiences binged an array of big drama boxsets including KIN, Happy Valley, Smother and One Tree Hill and TV series such as The Room to Improve, Home of the Year and the ever-popular Soaps.
Over the last year we've added more choice than ever before in every genre on RT Player, and continued our investment to ensure audiences have a great streaming experience, live and on-demand. We have also extended availability of our RT Player app across more TV platforms than ever before. There's plenty more in store for 2024.
Stream anytime on rte.ie/player
Top 10 programmes on RT Player in 2023
1 EastEnders
2 Home and Away
3 Fair City
4 KIN
5 The Saturday/Sunday Game
6 Rugby World Cup 2023
7 Happy Valley
8 Love/Hate
9 The Late Late Show
10 FIFA Women's World Cup
Top 10 drama series on RT Player in 2023
1 KIN
2 Happy Valley
3 Love/Hate
4 Unforgotten
5 Normal People
6 One Tree Hill
7 Frasier
8 Clean Sweep
9 Gossip Girl
10 Smother
Top 10 individual sport events on RT Player in 2023
1 FIFA Women's World Cup Live: Republic of Ireland v Australia (20th July 2023)
2 Rugby World Cup 2023: South Africa v Ireland (23rd September 2023)
3 FIFA Women's World Cup Live: Canada v Ireland (26th July 2023)
4 The Sunday Game Live: Kilkenny v Limerick, All-Ireland Hurling Final (23rd July 2023)
5 The Sunday Game Live: Dublin v Kerry, All-Ireland Football Final 2023 (30th July 2023)
6 Guinness Six Nations: Ireland v France (11 February 2023)
7 European Qualifiers: Republic of Ireland v France, UEFA Euro 2024 (27th March 2023)
8 Guinness Six Nations: Scotland v Ireland (12th March 2023)
9 Rugby World Cup 2023: Ireland v Tonga (16th September 2023)
10 Rugby World Cup 2023: France v New Zealand (8th September 2023)
Top 10 documentaries on RT Player in 2023
1 Gaelic in the Joy
2 Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
3 Dr Cassidy's Casebook
4 The Case I Can't Forget
5 Davy's Toughest Team
6 Ireland's Wild Islands
7 The Murdochs: Empire of Influence
8 Quinn Country
9 Missing: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle
10 Brian and Arthur: A Very Modern Family
Top 10 comedy programmes on RT Player in 2023
1 The Young Offenders
2 Father Ted
3 SisterS
4 The Big Bang Theory
5 Colin from Accounts
6 Hardy Bucks
7 Killinaskully
8 Women on the Verge
9 The 2 Johnnies Do America
10 PEN15
Top 10 kids programmes on RT Player in 2023
1 Peppa Pig
2 Bluey
3 News2Day
4 Bing Bunny
5 Fireman Sam
6 Peppa Muc
7 Dizzy Deliveries
8 Shaun the Sheep
9 Hey Duggee
10 Fia's Fairies
*Based on average weekly usage and 2022 performance RT Player streams expected to hit 100 million by 31 December 2023.
Data source: Piano Analytics. Top 10 based on total streams, genre top 10's are based on total streams within that genre.
More from RTE
24/07/2026
Kerry and Mayo fans Up For The Match as excitement builds in Croke Park on the e...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year.
Ce...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
21/07/2026
160 hours of Irish storytelling for 2026
KIN and The Walsh Sisters return
RT has today unveiled its most ambitious drama slate ever, with a record-breakin...
20/07/2026
FIFA World Cup Final sets new RT Player record as the most-streamed single event in the platform's history
Over 1 million viewers watched live on RT 2 as ...
17/07/2026
New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule
RT Radio 1 is...
17/07/2026
Up For The Match - Live From Croke Park this Saturday at 8pm on RT One and RT ...
17/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced DiscoverIreland.ie, as sponsor of The Traitor...
16/07/2026
Together the semi-finals had a combined reach of 1.98 million unique individuals...
15/07/2026
Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...
15/07/2026
Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...
13/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Joe Mag Raollaigh as the new Managing Editor of Nuacht, the Irish Language News and Current Affairs service a...
10/07/2026
New RT documentary explores Irish-led efforts to build bridges in divided Cyprus
More than a Game: From D1 to Pyla airs Monday 13 July
More Than a Game: Fro...
08/07/2026
Film follows the courageous fight for justice by survivors of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries & Mother and Baby Homes
TESTIMONY airs Wednesday 22 July at 9...
07/07/2026
To Whom It Concerns RT today confirmed that Patrick Kielty is to extend his contract as host of The Late Late Show.
Last season, the world's longest-runn...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
01/07/2026
9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June
Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2
23 million video views acr...
29/06/2026
RT today announced that Ger Gilroy will join the RT Podcasts team to present a daily sports podcast. Launching later this year, the new show will set the spor...
29/06/2026
RT Commercial announced OUTsurance as sponsor of the Oliver Callan show on RT Radio 1 from Wednesday 1 July.
Oliver Callan doubles the fun, delivering two ...
26/06/2026
A fresh look at how the Irish helped shape the foundations of the United States
...
25/06/2026
Launching today (Thursday 25 June), new RT podcast Ramble with Joe McGucken is a series of curiosity-driven conversations where actor, writer and comedian Joe ...
24/06/2026
From Cork to Limerick to Earagail:
RT is supporting 21 Arts and Cultural Events all over Ireland this July
RT Supporting the Arts is delighted to spotlight...
23/06/2026
The RT Toy Show Appeal has raised over 31 million since its inception in 2020 ...
17/06/2026
The RT Concert Orchestra will bring the timeless music of The Beach Boys to aud...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
11/06/2026
Summer solstice shows from C il House and Late Date from 9pm on Saturday 20 Jun...
09/06/2026
These special programmes will highlight RT 's connection with the Irish diaspora
This year, RT is marking 100 years of public broadcasting in Ireland with...
08/06/2026
Irish YouTube star DavidMC joins Aisling O'Reilly to tackle all things socce...
05/06/2026
RT Radio 1 Folk Awards to take place on Tuesday 10th November 2026, Vicar Street, Dublin
Moya Brennan, D nal Lunny, Mary Black and Christy Moore among previou...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
03/06/2026
RT confirms multi-channel and free to air coverage of the expanded tournament with enhanced digital features and the return of Total Football for young fans
S...
03/06/2026
RT has today announced Heineken 0.0 as the broadcast sponsor of their FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage.
The sponsorship, brokered by Dentsu, will see Heineken 0....
02/06/2026
June sees Ireland's cultural calendar in full bloom, as RT Supporting the Arts showcases a vibrant and wide-ranging programme spanning music, theatre, visu...
02/06/2026
After The Traitors Ireland launched in 2025, Irish audiences proved to have a taste for the global hit reality show. This Bank Holiday Monday fans can indulge e...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
28/05/2026
RT presents Wild Conamara, a two-part natural history documentary that brings a...
25/05/2026
The RT Concert Orchestra will celebrate the centenary of Hollywood icon Marilyn...
22/05/2026
Catch the latest in Irish music live from venues such as Whelan's, R is n Du...
21/05/2026
Dublin DJ RKM333 wins 2FM competition and a coveted slot at this year's Forbidden Fruit Festival
2FM's search for the next big Irish DJ concluded this ...
20/05/2026
Mayo's Dee Freney and Margaret Leahy from Galway have reached the final of RT Today's TV Home Cook competition.
Both contestants will cook again live...
20/05/2026
RT IN FULL BLOOM AT BORD BIA BLOOM 2026 WITH LIVE BROADCASTS, MUSIC, CHAT AND M...
15/05/2026
Further to RT 's statement released yesterday and in the interest of full transparency, with the full permission of Derek Mooney, we are now publishing the ...
14/05/2026
RT is today publishing the earnings of its top 10 highest-earning presenters for 2025, ahead of the publication of RT 's Annual Report 2025 later this year...
Soaps, Sport, Drama and Entertainment among the most streamed in 2023
