How many people tuned in to watch Queen Elizabeth II's funeral?

Britain’s longest reigning monarch had her final farewell on Monday (19 September) after a 10-day national period of mourning. 

The funeral was attended by over 2,000 guests, including prime ministers and world leaders from across the world, diplomats, and celebrities.

While the funeral was strictly invite only, the state service was aired live on TV, with tens of millions of people tuning in from all around the globe. 

How many people watched the Queen’s Funeral?

The BBC are reporting that over 26 million Britons watched the procession of the Queen’s coffin, with coverage of the funeral available on all but one British TV networks. 

The broadcast figures, while extremely high, do not surpass that of Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997, when 32.1 million UK viewers tuned in to watch the funeral of the ‘people’s princess’. 

In Australia, the Queen’s funeral service aired at 8pm on Monday night and attracted 5.17 million viewers across both free-to-air and pay TV networks. 

Even in the United States, an average 11.4 million Americans tuned in to mark the funeral, demonstrating the global reach of the monarch. 

Queen Elizabeth II was then laid to rest at Windsor Castle in the King George VI memorial Chapel, where her husband (Prince Phillip), father (King George VI), and mother (Elizabeth), are also buried. 

Although these numbers may seem impressive, they haven’t taken into consideration those who viewed the funeral on streaming services, social media platforms or other mediums. 

Current estimates suggest as many as 4.1 billion global viewers were expected to tune into the funeral, making it one of the highest viewed television programs of all time.

It will take some while before official numbers of the global viewership emerge, so, until then it’s safe to say that the Queen’s funeral will not be easily forgotten.