Doctor Who Draws Big iPlayer Views Over Christmas 2023 (But there is a Caveat)

The BBC proudly proclaimed yesterday that Doctor Who contributed to “driving record-breaking festive viewing on BBC iPlayer” with 10.01 million views for the show reported.

This has led to some misconceptions that the 2023 Doctor Who Christmas special alone, starring Ncuti Gatwa, achieved these numbers.

However, this is not accurate. The final consolidated figure for “The Church on Ruby Road” is still not available yet, but we will update our ratings post as soon as it is.

The figure of 10.01 million is actually for all iPlayer streams of Doctor Who during the BBC’s ‘festive fortnight’ (19 Dec 2023 – 1 Jan 2024). This number encompasses every episode from 2005 onwards, thus including a backlog of nearly two decades’ worth of episodes.

“The Church on Ruby Road” garnered 1.79 million streams, so logically the remaining 8.22 million streams were for older episodes.

The disparity between the overall series streams and the latest special’s suggests that nostalgia was driving the iPlayer viewers, or people were checking out other Doctor Who stories for the first time.

The BBC’s top 10 episodes per series throughout the ‘festive fortnight’ on BBC iPlayer (streams):

1. EastEnders – 25/12/2023: 2.96 million
2. Vigil – Series 2 – Episode 6: 2.19 million
3. Rick Astley Rocks New Year’s Eve – Part 1: 2.02 million
4. Call the Midwife – Christmas Special 2023: 2.01 million
5. Doctor Who 2023 Christmas Special: The Church on Ruby Road: 1.79 million
6. Murder Is Easy – Series 1 – Episode 1: 1.52 million
7. Death in Paradise – Christmas Special 2023: 1.45 million
8. Match of the Day – 23/12/2023: 1.36 million
9. Mrs Brown’s Boys – 2023 Specials – Mammy’s Mare: 1.34 million
10. Strictly Come Dancing – Series 21 – Christmas Special: 1.16 million

The top 20 programme brands throughout the ‘festive fortnight’ on BBC iPlayer were (streams):

1. EastEnders: 26.28 million
2. Vigil: 10.96 million
3. Bluey: 10.42 million
4. Hey Duggee: 10.12 million
5. Doctor Who (2005+): 10.01 million
6. Mrs Brown’s Boys: 4.64 million
7. Death in Paradise: 3.98 million
8. Gavin & Stacey: 3.96 million
9. Call the Midwife: 3.85 million
10. Ghosts: 3.82 million