ITV reveals viewing figures for 2026 Grand National with peak of 5.2 million tuning in

Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here

Saturday's Grand National drew ITV Sport's second highest audience of the year to date, with 5.018 million people tuning in on television and the channel's online ITVX service to watch I Am Maximus record his second success in the race, a figure which rose to 5.2m when other devices are accounted for.  

That compares closely to the 2025 viewing figures of 5.2m on ITV1 and ITVX, although the share of the TV viewing public dipped slightly, with the three and a half hour Grand National show attracting an average of 34.9 per cent, compared to 38.8 per cent last year, while the peak share at race time was 55 per cent, down from the 60 per cent 12 months ago. 

With the growth of streaming and other non-linear methods of watching the race, exact year-on-year comparisons are becoming increasingly difficult.

Despite having lost around 1.4m viewers when the race was first moved to an earlier 4pm slot on safety grounds in 2024 – and another 900,000 people last year – the National remains a very popular sporting spectacle by the modern standards of free-to-air television, with only Scotland's defeat of England in rugby union's Six Nations Championship in February outstripping Saturday's race in terms of audience share this year.

Against that there is clearly a chunk of ITV Racing's previous audience that are not watching at 4pm, an off-time preferred by the Jockey Club and the BHA in order to reduce the "heightened tension of a long build-up" to the race and to help "maintain optimal jumping ground, as warm or breezy conditions can dry out the racing surface".

ITV reported a four per cent rise in the number of times Saturday's show was streamed, with 947,000 replays of the race itself, suggesting that – despite the ability to be able to watch anywhere on a smartphone – some viewers have returned to the habits of a pre-digital age when they set the video recorder and went elsewhere during the day, before catching up with the racing when returning home. 

A Grand National hat-trick bid for I Am Maximus could be great news for ITVCredit: Grossick Photography (racingpost.com/photos)

The Grand National cannot be guaranteed a pre-event narrative every year which attracts extra viewers, but the good news for ITV is that, should I Am Maximus make the start line in 2027, his historic bid for a three-timer could be good for business on the basis of recent form. 

The popular Tiger Roll's bid for a second National win in 2019 coincided with an extra million viewers compared to his first success, with the 9.6m total the highest in the ten years since the network took over coverage from Channel 4. 

More on the Grand National:

'He’s not the easiest horse to breed with, but he's worth it' - the awesome Authorized's journey from Derby winner to Grand National legend 

Paul Townend delivers one of the coolest winning rides in Grand National history, but is the great race becoming predictable? 

I Am Maximus 'perhaps the best National winner of them all' says BHA handicapper - and there's 'every chance' he can emulate Red Rum 

Looking for free bets? Racing Post have got the best offers, all in one place. Visit racingpost.com/freebets to find out more.