UK General Election, soaring summer temperatures and Mayweather victory mark BBC Online’s top hits in 2015

21.7m UK unique browsers (UBs) chose to follow the UK General Election results on BBC News online, and Mayweather’s win against Pacquiao topped the year for audiences to BBC Sport. 

With demand from people on mobiles and tablets making up 60 per cent of traffic to BBC Online, mobile traffic increased from 30 per cent to 39 per cent year on year - and app usage also soared in 2015, with over 10m stories downloaded to the CBeebies Storytime app and an additional 26 million BBC apps were installed in 2015.

On News:

• 8 May was the most popular day for BBC News in the UK – with 21.7m UK UBs (31.2m global UBs), as people chose to follow the BBC’s quality results coverage from the UK General Election across multiple devices. The attacks in Paris topped the list globally. 14 November followed – with 18.0m UK UBs (47.6m global UBs), as people followed the fallout from the Paris attacks, and third was 2 June – with 13.4m UK UBs (21.8m global UBs) - due to the Alton Towers crash and the death of MP Charles Kennedy
• Between 6am and 7am on the morning of the election results, 85 per cent of UBs were from mobiles and tablets – making 2015 the first mobile election
• The surprise hit of 2015 was the article Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes which attracted over 7.5m page views this year, despite being published in July 2013. The engaging subject matter meant that this article sporadically went viral on social media 

Sports fans flocked to the BBC in 2015 with:

• 3 May topping the chart on BBC Sport – with Mayweather v Pacquiao ‘Battle For Greatness’ match attracting 8.9m UK UBs (12.5m global UBs) during the course of the day. Hamilton’s F1 world title win, attracting 11.2m global UBs and four of the top 10 days, fell within the Rugby World Cup period
• And during this summer’s Ashes, the BBC’s cricket site posted some record-breaking figures. The opening week series saw a record 7.8m UBs to the BBC’s Cricket site – only for that record to be broken again during that amazing fourth test, with 8m UBs. The Ashes was also the top event on BBC Sport’s live pages – where 2.9m UK UBs tuned into Australia’s collapse as they fell for 60         
• The BBC Sport app has been downloaded 7m times – showing the demand for sport on mobile devices. App usage peaks on a busy weekend - with 1.2m people signed up to getting sport notifications 

The UK’s fascination with the weather continued with:

• 1 July 2015 – seeing a record breaking 7.3m UK UBs to BBC Weather (7.6m global UBs) - as the UK basked in the sun in the hottest July day ever recorded. 29 January came second - with 7.2m UK UBs (7.4m global UBs) due to snowfall. And 2 July 2015 followed – with 6.8m UK UBs (7.1m global UBs) due to the continued hot weather
• The top five most-searched-for locations on the BBC Weather site are London, Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol and Edinburgh
• 2015 seeing the BBC introduce Weather Watchers to the UK. Over 55,000 people registered so far with BBC Weather Watchers – to submit their own photos and forecasts 

Children’s programmes were popular on BBC iPlayer and millions of stories were downloaded to the CBeebies Storytime app with:

• 10m individual stories downloaded to the app so far
• Monday between 8am and 9am the most popular time to download stories
• CBBC’s The Dumping Ground topping the list of most popular children’s programme on BBC iPlayer
• Newsround's video of seven-year-old Ethan hiccupping his way through the Australian national anthem was the most popular page on the CBBC website this year, viewed by 270k UK UBs in just one week.
• CBeebies’ festive advent calendar, featuring trees made out of cakes was the most popular page on the CBeebies website this year with 210k UK UBs in one week
• The CBBC YouTube video of the Charlie bit my finger boys all grown up still the most viewed CBBC YouTube video this year with over 3 million views globally

People’s appetite to learn, be surprised and gain knowledge saw:

• BBC iWonder’s guide ‘Take the test: What’s the right diet for you?’ published in association with the Horizon Special on BBC Two reach 1m unique browsers in a single week – the most popular iWonder guide of the year
• BBC Bitesize peak in May – as students crammed in their studies before the first week of GCSE exams for the major exam boards in the UK
• Easter egg nests, roast leg of lamb and Easter biscuits the most popular recipes in the run-up to Easter
• The seasonal spirit starting in earnest – with BBC Food’s Christmas page featuring in the top 10 pages every week since mid-November 

2015 was a big year for BBC Radio and Music

• Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk (feat Bruno Mars) was the top track add to BBC Music Playlister in 2015 – with Hozier’s Take Me To Church and James Bay’s Hold Back The River close behind
• BBC Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw topped the chart of most popular person to wake up with on the BBC iPlayer Radio app’s alarm clock – with Chris Evans, the Today presenters and Shaun Keaveny close behind. 

Ralph Rivera, director of BBC Digital, said: “It’s been a huge year for mobile in 2015, and when it comes to major news events and crunch sporting moments people know they can trust the BBC to keep them updated wherever they are. But it’s not just news and sport – whether it’s checking the weather, downloading children’s stories to the CBeebies app or learning with our Bitesize guides, it’s clear people value the BBC providing them with trusted and distinctive information, education and entertainment where and when they want it.”

Notes to Editors 

BBC iPlayer and BBC iPlayer-related information for 2015 will be issued in January 2016. 

The Top BBC News stories of 2015 were:  

• Paris attacks: Dozens dead and hostages held at Bataclan - 36.7m global page views
• Election live page from 7/8 May - 31.8m global page views
• Paris attacks live page from 14 November - 21.8m global page views
• Charlie Hebdo attack: Manhunt live page from 9 January - 17.0m global page views
• Election 2015: Exit poll puts Tories close to majority - 15.4m global page views
• Germanwings plane crash: Co-pilot 'wanted to destroy plane’ - 13.7m global page views
• Paris attacks live page from 20 November - 9.4m global page views
• Germanwings airliner 4U 9525 crashes in French Alps - 11.5m global page views
• Four seriously hurt in Alton Towers rollercoaster crash - 6.5m global page views
• Royal baby: Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to daughter - 8.6m global page views 

The top moments on BBC Sport’s live pages were:

• Ashes Test, Australia out for 60 - 2.9m UK UBs
• Wimbledon, Federer beats Murray in the semi-final - 2.7m UK UBs
• Ashes Test Day three of final test - England need with 3 wickets to regain Ashes - 2.6m UK UBs
• Football: Transfer Deadline Day - 2.4m UK UBs
• Ashes Test, Day two of Third test - Steve Finn bowls 5-45 - 2.2m UK UBs
• Murray beats Karlovic to reach last eight - 2.1m UK UBs
• Six Nations: Final Day - 1.9m UK UBs
• Wimbledon, Murray beats Pospisii in quarter finals - 1.9m UK UBs
• Ashes Test Day 1 of final test - 1.9m UK UBs
• Ashes Test Day 4 of first test England set 412 chase target for Australia - 1.8m UK UBs

IW

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