Normal People has been named as BBC iPlayer’s most popular series of 2020.
The broadcaster says there have so far been over 62 million requests to stream the BBC’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel on iPlayer.
As a whole, there were 5.3 billion requests to stream content on iPlayer from January to November, 33 per cent up on the same period last year.
Killing Eve has once again been a big hit, with 39 million requests for the third series of the spy thriller.
Other big successes this year include The Secrets She Keeps, Mike Bartlett’s Life, depicting the complex and troubled lives of four families in Manchester, Michaela Coel’s incredible I May Destroy You, and tense thriller The Nest.
Killing Eve’s dramatic return for series three is the biggest single episode of the year so far on iPlayer, with 7.4 million requests.
Unsurprisingly, BBC News has had a significant year on iPlayer, with over 480 million requests for news content on iPlayer across the year, up 91 per cent on January to November in 2019. The biggest single day for news content on iPlayer was October 31st, when the second national lockdown was announced, with 5.4 million requests.
Dan McGolpin, controller of BBC iPlayer, said: “It’s been a tough year for so many of us but through two national lockdowns and many difficult months BBC iPlayer has been there to keep us entertained and well informed wherever you are throughout the UK, seeing 5 billion requests for the first time ever.”
