Television in Spain experienced a dramatic peak this Sunday as La 1 delivered the most-watched broadcast of the year, driven by the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The Spain against Germany match drew an astonishing 11,218,000 viewers and secured a massive 60.7% share of the screen, signaling a rare moment when live sports captured a country’s full attention. Analysts note that this single game not only attracted a huge audience but also created a ripple effect across prime-time viewing, reinforcing the World Cup as a defining television event of the season.
When compared with the midweek encounter between La Roja and Costa Rica, the audience impact becomes even clearer. Viewership effectively doubled, while the share increased by about 12.8 percentage points. This surge translated into public television leading the day with an average share around 24.4%, underscoring the World Cup’s outsized influence on audience behavior and channel competition during that period.
Following the match, La 1 continued to attract viewers and asserted itself as the most-watched channel. The broader numbers show La 1 achieving a 38.9% share and reaching 6,992,000 viewers, anchored by the prime time programming block that included the feature film of the week. The film Project Attack drew 16.2% share and 2,121,000 viewers, contributing to La 1’s strong performance and cementing its position as the preferred option for a wide audience that night. The succession of programs kept families tuned in, with Family Secrets the second most-watched option in the same time frame. Meanwhile, Antena 3’s Turkish-language series trailed behind, achieving a 12.8% share and 1,444,000 viewers, indicating mixed results across networks for international content during the same window.
However, not all evenings offered the same momentum. Telecinco’s Nightmare in Heaven failed to break into double digits, drawing 9.6% and 946,000 viewers. In contrast, Fourth Millennium posted a respectable 7% audience and 891,000 viewers, while LaSexta faced softer numbers with a 3.1% share and 497,000 viewers alongside the late-night movie Whip. These figures illustrate the volatility of prime-time competition even amid a sports-driven audience surge, with some programs benefitting from the World Cup audience spillover and others struggling to maintain momentum after the main event.