The 24th Junior Eurovision Song Contest proved hugely popular with young audiences across the world, setting a new live streaming record on YouTube Kids and growing across every official digital channel.

Broadcast on Saturday 24 October, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026 reached 11 million viewers across 11 measured markets* on TV and millions more via the event’s digital channels.

The competition, in which artists from 16 countries performed on the colourful stage of the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in Ta’ Qali, was hosted by PBS under the Contest’s slogan ‘United By Music’.

An average of 3.3 million people watched on TV  as EBU Member AMPTV from Armenia won the Contest for the third time with “BOO!”, performed by 13-year-old Naré (pictured above). The show delivered a 12.5% viewing share among children aged 4 to 14, more than double the channel average (5.6%).

The Contest also delivered a 6% viewing share among 15 to 24-year-olds, clearly outperforming the 4% normally achieved by the same broadcast channels.

Young teen audiences nearly double on YouTube

The live show stream on YouTube Kids reached a significantly younger audience than in 2025. The share of viewers aged 13 to 17 almost doubled, from 7.7% to 14.6%. The highest number of international viewers watched from Poland (18%), followed by Armenia (15.1%), Ukraine (9.7%), Spain (7.7%) and Germany (4.5%).

The live show stream on YouTube Kids set a new record of just over 134,000 peak concurrent viewers, up 32% on Tbilisi 2025. Engaged viewers rose 32.3% and unique views rose 21.1%, while average viewing time increased from 21 minutes 21 seconds to 23 minutes 41 seconds.

Surge in YouTube views

Across all content, YouTube Kids views surged by 68.8% year-on-year.

Shorts proved particularly popular, skyrocketing by 414% year-on-year, while music videos and performances grew 19.4%. Livestream viewers, including Junior Non-Stop Hits, also more than doubled, with views up 103.4%.

Junior Non-Stop Hits, a dedicated livestream of favourite Junior Eurovision performances, reached more than a quarter of a million unique viewers.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest channel now has 1.25 million subscribers, up 18.5%.

The live show was also streamed on Twitch, reaching 355,431 unique viewers, up 6.6% on 2025. The top five viewing locations were the United States, Poland, Germany, France and Brazil.

Millions United by Music online

Engagement in the build-up to, and during, the event grew year on year on all the Contest’s digital channels as well. Across YouTube Kids, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitch, official content generated 231.1 million views, up 9% on 2025**.

Official channels also gained followers ahead of Malta 2026: TikTok reached 376.5k followers (+27.7%), Instagram 233.7k (+8.5%) and Facebook 246.5k (+13.5%).

The new Junior Eurovision Song Contest website attracted 1.1 million active users during the reporting period, with 595,456 recorded in the days around the live show. The biggest number of visitors were from Poland, Spain, Armenia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Bringing young people together

“The Junior Eurovision Song Contest has always been about bringing young people together, and these results show that our slogan, United by Music, is more than words. Whether children and teens were watching on TV, streaming on YouTube Kids, or joining in on TikTok and Twitch, they were part of the same celebration,” said Junior Eurovision Song Contest Director Martin Green CBE.

“Seeing our youngest audiences grow on so many platforms tells us that the Contest speaks to them wherever they are. I want to thank PBS Malta for hosting a wonderful show, and all the broadcasters who took part and helped bring it to children and families across Europe and beyond.”

Strong performances on TV

Poland and Spain attracted the largest average TV audiences, with approximately 1.5 million and 1.2 million viewers respectively, up 361,000 and 521,000 on last year. France followed with 253,000 viewers.

Poland achieved the highest viewing share among all broadcasters, with 15.7%, more than double the channel’s typical performance in the slot. Spain followed with a 12% share, up 48% on last year, then Georgia with 9%.

Across the 11 measured markets, the Contest averaged a 5.5% viewing share, and in eight of the eleven it delivered a higher share than the broadcast channel usually achieves in that slot.

The host broadcaster for the 25th anniversary edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2027 will be announced in due course.

Find out more about everything that happened at the 24th Junior Eurovision Song Contest on junior.eurovision.com and up with all the backstage fun on our social media channels: @JuniorEurovision on TikTok, @junioreurovisionofficial on Instagram and Junior Eurovision Song Contest on Facebook and re-watch the full Malta 2026 show on YouTube Kids.

* TV audience source: EBU based on Glance / Relevant Partners and RTCG Montenegro. Data unavailable for participating broadcasters from Albania, Armenia, Malta, North Macedonia, San Marino

** Comparative data taken from respective platforms over reporting periods: 21 September to 31 October for Malta 2026; 10 November to 20 December for Tbilisi 2025.