BRIT Awards attracts almost half of UK youth audience and record digital engagement

The BRIT Awards 2026 with Mastercard on February 28th achieved the event's biggest uplift yet across its social channels, as well as significant Official Charts uplifts across performing artists and award winners on the night. The 2026 show marked the first time the UK’s biggest night in music has been staged outside of London in its five-decade history, and its impact shows connected with more music fans at home and around the world than ever before.

The show was broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK and, for the first time, on ITV’s YouTube channel, as well as on BRITs’ YouTube channel for those outside of the UK, from the Co-op Live in Manchester. ITVX’s BRITs coverage saw impressive growth with over 2 million total streams to date, achieving an over 60 per cent increase year on year.

The 2026 show proved a hit with younger viewers as nearly half of the coveted 16–34 demographic watching TV during the timeslot were watching the BRITs. This 49 per cent share meant The BRITs achieved the highest peak share for any commercial programme in the 2026 calendar so far. In a landmark first for the channel, The BRIT Awards 2026 was made available to stream on ITV’s YouTube for UK viewers.

Hosted by comedian and actor Jack Whitehall, the show featured exclusive performances from Alex Warren; EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI, the singing voices from HUNTR/X; Harry Styles; Mark Ronson (with Dua Lipa and Ghostface Killah); Olivia Dean; RAYE; Rosalía (with Björk), SOMBR; and Wolf Alice, as well as an all-star tribute performance for Ozzy Osbourne fronted by Robbie Williams.

Olivia Dean took home the most awards of the night with four wins for Mastercard Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year with Mastercard (for the chart-topping collaboration with Sam Fender) and Pop Act.

Social media content on the BRITs owned channels (@BRITs) broke records once again, with video content from the 48 hours post-show amassing in excess of over 250 million organic views, an increase of 275 per cent on last year.

Driving this phenomenal growth is Instagram, with 162 million views, up 400 per cent from 32.4 million views in the same period last year. Followers of BRITs’ Instagram were treated to exclusive content throughout the night, which saw over 10 million likes across the 48 hours following the event, as well as almost one million content shares.

Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of UK record labels association, the BPI, which puts on The BRIT Awards every year, said: “This year’s BRIT Awards 2026 with Mastercard were as groundbreaking as they were epic, and the show’s off-the-scale impact and reach has made it an even more powerful global stage for British artists and international talent.

"The first time outside of London, and embraced by Manchester in the most heart-felt way, including through a first-ever BRITs Fringe, we’re seeing record levels of digital engagement and media reporting, increased ratings, and a marked uplift in the sales and streams of the amazing music that we were privileged to celebrate on Saturday night."

More on the BRIT Awards.

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