Thank you for making this a World Cup to remember on the BBC

Image source, Getty ImagesByAlex Kay-JelskiBBC Director of Sport

Published5 minutes ago

As an incredible World Cup comes to an end, everyone here at the BBC wanted to say thank you.

Thank you to the 42.8 million people who tuned in to our live match coverage on television or streamed games on iPlayer, the BBC Sport app and website 237 million times. That's a lot of football.

Whether you were one of the 24 million who watched England v Argentina in the semi-final, the late-night 9.1 million who stayed up until 4am for England v Mexico, the 2.4 million who saw Scotland beat Haiti in the middle of the night, or part of the hardcore crew of half a million who gave Iran v New Zealand a chance at 2am and were rewarded with a four-goal thriller.

Thank you to those of you who trusted us to not spoil your mornings, coming to iPlayer or the BBC Football YouTube channel every day for our eight-minute highlight packages. There were so many of you that we saw the biggest ever day and week in iPlayer's history.

Thank you to the 57.2 million unique browsers who used our app and website 1.7 billion times, watching clips of our games, interviews and journalism, following our amazing live pages and reading stories from our journalists covering everything from the Trump-Fifa-Balogun scandal to tactical trends and the US entry denial of Somalian referee Omar Artan.

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And to those of you who spent ages deep in our new 3D tool, watching the game as if you were Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Erling Haaland charging down the goalkeeper - it was used almost five million times. We love trying new things and you using them helps us decide what to do next.

Thank you to the millions of you on the move tuning in to the games on Radio 5 Live or BBC Sounds, realising there are few better ways to sit on the edge of your seat than listening to John Murray, Ian Dennis and the team. And to those who helped the visualised Football Daily podcast reach more people than ever before.

As for those of you whose fingers are tired from six weeks of swiping more than two billion times through our social and digital content, thank you for devouring our behind-the-scenes footage of Harry Kane's hilarious high-pitch interview, our attempts to introduce Olivier Giroud to Irn-Bru, our YouTube tactical dissections and, of course, Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart and Micah Richards' rowing trip down the Hudson.

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Figure caption,

Watch the BBC's closing World Cup montage

Thank you to all the new people using the BBC, buying licence fees from QR codes or finding our app, socials or shows for the first time. It's great to have you with us.

There's lots more we have to offer if you stick around too, whether that is downloading our app with its swipeable video feed, following your favourite sport or team for a personalised experience, or checking out our range of documentaries and podcasts across iPlayer and Sounds.

It doesn't have to be sport either - there are amazing dramas, comedies, music, children's shows and news coverage across the BBC, to mention just a few things.

Mostly, however, you spent time with the BBC during the World Cup - and 94% of you in the country did - thank you for choosing us and trusting us.

We loved bringing all the action, fun and drama to you.