FIFA World Cup semi-finals deliver whopper audiences as RT Player surpasses 21 million streams across the tournament to date

Together the semi-finals had a combined reach of 1.98 million unique individuals

A blockbuster weekend of sport to come with coverage of All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final and FIFA World Cup Final across RT platforms

Football fans in their thousands have tuned into RT 's coverage of the FIFA World Cup semi-finals this week, with audiences across television, streaming and digital platforms reaching record levels.

The blockbuster encounters between Spain and France, and England and Argentina, reached a combined 1.98 million unique viewers on a 1-minute reach basis, highlighting the tournament's growing momentum ahead of the final.

On Tuesday night, an average of 873,000 viewers tuned in to RT 2 to watch Spain's dramatic victory over France, accounting for a 61% share of the available audience. An additional 1.03 million streams were recorded on RT Player.

On Wednesday night, an average of 949,000 viewers tuned in to RT 2 for England v Argentina, delivering a 60% share of the available audience. The match also generated 985,000 streams on RT Player.

As the official Irish broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup, RT is one of only a small number of public service broadcasters providing free-to-air coverage across television, radio and digital platforms, ensuring Irish audiences can follow the action whenever and wherever it suits them.

RT Player has continued to break records throughout the tournament, surpassing the total number of streams recorded during the entire 2022 FIFA World Cup after the group stages alone. To date during the 2026 tournament, the platform has generated 21.3 million streams, with the final still to come, compared with 8.5 million streams across the whole tournament in 2022.

Declan McBennett, Head of Sport at RT , said:

The level of engagement with both the FIFA World Cup and the GAA Championship again shows how important the relationship is between live sport and free to air television. RT Sport is proud to bring the very best of national and global sport to a mass Irish audience and to make it accessible wherever people choose to watch, listen or follow along. To surpass 21 million streams on RT Player during the tournament is a remarkable milestone and demonstrates the appetite among Irish audiences for major sporting events. With a huge weekend of sport still to come, we look forward to bringing viewers comprehensive coverage of both the FIFA World Cup Final and the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.

As we roll into a blockbuster weekend of sport on RT , Sunday's action gets underway with the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final between Galway and Limerick at 2.15pm on RT 2 and RT Player, before attention turns to the FIFA World Cup Final at 7pm, when Argentina will take on Spain, live on RT 2 and RT Player, in what promises to be a thrilling conclusion to the tournament.

A specially extended Sunday Sport on RT Radio One will have full commentary on the All-Ireland Hurling final from 2pm with Pauric Lodge and Shane McGrath at the helm and a host of experts and special guests including John Mullane, Anthony Daly and Brian Carroll. The programme will stay on air till 7pm for post-match analysis as well as live coverage of the closing holes of The Open from Birkdale and the build-up to the FIFA World Cup Final.

The Sunday Game Beo will broadcast a full programme live from Croke Park for the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final on RT Player and the RT News channel. The programme will be presented by Gr inne McElwain, with John Allen and Paul Flanagan providing analysis and insight. Irish-language commentary will be provided by Garry Mac Donncha and Pat Fleury, ensuring viewers can enjoy all the action as Gaeilge.

On RT Raidi na Gaeltachta, C rthach B n Breathnach and Cathal Moore will have commentary and analysis for Galway v Limerick live from Croke Park, while Liam Mac a Mhaoir, Macadara Mac Dhonncha and Tom s Rua Cahdla will have analysis and reporting from the sideline.

Viewers can also enjoy Irish-language commentary on the FIFA World Cup Final via the audio selection option on RT 2 and RT Player, with coverage provided by Se n Finneadha and Charlie McGeever.

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final will air on Sunday, 19 July from 2.15pm on RT 2 and RT Player.

The FIFA World Cup Final will air on Sunday, 19 July from 7pm on RT 2 and RT Player.

The FIFA World Cup is sponsored by Heineken 0.0.

ENDS

Caoilinn Putti, RT Communications

LINK:	https://about.rte.ie/2026/07/16/fifa-world-cup-semi-finals-deliver-who...
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