Sweden's Loreen won Eurovision this year in Liverpool

London (AFP) - Some 162 million viewers watched this year’s Eurovision song competition held in Liverpool, the BBC said Friday also highlighting “record” engagement online.

The UK hosted the musical extravaganza on behalf of last year’s winner Ukraine, due to the Russian invasion.

Sweden’s Loreen secured a seventh victory for the Nordic country with the track “Tattoo” and made Eurovision history as the first woman to win the competition twice.

The contest “has never been more popular”, said Noel Curran, director-general of the European Broadcasting Union that organised the competition.

The figure counted viewers over the contest’s three live shows – two semi-finals and the final – across 38 public service media markets.

In host country Britain around 9.9 million people tuned in for the Eurovision final on May 13, up 12 percent on last year.

Winner Sweden had an average audience of 2.3 million viewers, accounting for 82.3 percent of all TV viewers in the country.

Finland, which took second place, had 1.7 million viewers.

On TikTok, the three live shows were viewed 4.8 million times, while videos under the #Eurovision2023 hashtag garnered 4.8 billion views between April 30 and May 15.

Starting this year, viewers outside the 37 participating countries could take part in the voting process.

Votes were received from over 100 non-participating countries, including the United States, Canada, Turkey and New Zealand.