Euro 2024, Croatia-Italy fills up and brings 2.5 million viewers back to TV
Total audience over 15 million for the match that qualified the Italian national team for the round of 16 of Euro 2024
by Andrea Biondi
2' min read
2' min read
The anticipation for Croatia-Italy, the decisive match for the passage to the round of 16 of Euro 2024 - which succeeded with only seconds to go - led 15,378,005 people (total audience value elaborated by Studio Frasi on Auditel data) to follow the match; some from television (14.8 million), some from the small screens of PCs, smartphones and tablets (607,000), some on RAI (13.8 million) and some on Sky Sport channels (1.6 million).
Croatia-Italy is the most watched of the three matches played so far at Euro 2024. It must be said, however, that with the same perimeter (previous editions did not have a total audience) it produces smaller audiences than a match from 2016 (Belgium-Italy) and a match from 2021: the same Italy-Switzerland match that will still be played on Saturday 29 June.
However, we are talking about very high ratings. In 2021 Italy-Switzerland was watched by 15.3 million people, so this is the next target audience for Rai, Sky and the companies that have invested in Euro 2024. Listenings and investments saved by Mattia Zaccagni a few seconds before the final whistle.
"At the moment, wanting to take stock of Euro 2024 after all the teams have played their first two matches, nine of them, one a day, in prime time," explains Francesco Siliato, media analyst at Studio Frasi, "the ratings are very high, although lower than the two previous editions of the Europeans. Sky, which broadcasts all the matches, had before Croatia-Italy an average audience of 489 thousand viewers and Rai 4.6 million, the average of the nine matches on prime time Rai1 and four in the afternoon on Rai2'.
World Cups and European Championships capture audiences, even non-TV audiences. In addition to the passion for football, there is also curiosity and support for the national team, so the TV total grows and rejuvenates. For Croatia-Italy the increases are really considerable. Compared to the two previous Mondays, 3.8 million more people tuned in their TV sets to the channels monitored by Auditel (recognised TV) during the match, while the 'unrecognised' (Ott and others) dropped by 1.3 million.
