The dramatic final of the Halo World Championship between Wu Yize and Shaun Murphy achieved a peak audience of 4 million viewers on BBC and TNT Sports on Monday evening.

Wu beat Murphy 18-17 in an enthralling contest, the first Crucible final to go to a deciding frame since 2002. Wu became the fourth consecutive first-time champion, following Luca Brecel, Kyren Wilson and Zhao Xintong.

The final session peak of 4 million – including 3.9 million on BBC – was the highest since 2022 and an increase of 25% compared to last year’s peak.

The audience share was a massive 25%, meaning that of all people watching television in the UK at that time, a quarter of them were watching the final.

In total across the tournament there were 120 million viewer hours on the BBC, up from 118 million last season.

BBC iPlayer had a huge 27.6 million streams during the event and a total of 16.3 million unique individuals in the UK were reached during the Championship.

This year, the World Championship debuted on HBO Max – the new streaming home of TNT Sports. The final day of the event saw a 44% increase in average streaming audiences compared to 2025.

WST’s Western social media channels broke through the half-billion barrier during the Championship, generating more than 580 million video views across its platforms.

Facebook (+50%), Instagram (+18.5%), YouTube (+67%) and TikTok (+195%) all delivered major year-on-year increases in views and reach versus last year’s tournament.

It was a similar story across WST’s Chinese social media platforms, as fans went wild for Wu’s success, with 549 million video views generated across WST channels in the country during the tournament - a 241% increase on 2025’s numbers, when Zhao was victorious.

Douyin was the standout performer, generating 338 million views, up 344% on 2025, while WST content delivered 743 million impressions across its Chinese social media channels over the course of the event.

Tom Rowell, WST’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, said: “This will go down as one of the greatest ever World Championships, particularly the drama of the semi-finals and the final. For the first time in 24 years we saw the final go down to the very last frame, but throughout the match the standard of play between Wu Yize and Shaun Murphy was sensational. We are delighted that this achieved the highest peak viewing figure for four years and a vast audience share of 25%.

“As always our appreciation goes to BBC Sport and TNT Sports for their outstanding coverage across linear and digital platforms which helps to achieve consistently outstanding viewing figures for snooker when compared to other sports.

“We have had an incredible season across all metrics in television audience, digital growth and ticket sales and our sport will continue to go from strength to strength in 2026/27.”

World Snooker Championship Final Hits Peak Audience Of 4 Million