In less than three years since it first aired in the UK, The Traitors has become the country’s most-watched TV programme. It has pulled in some of the biggest viewing figures seen so far this decade.
The show started on BBC One in December 2022, and the first series had fairly average numbers. Around 3.7 million people watched on average, and it reached 4.7 million viewers for the final. That was still lower than big TV events at the time, like the football World Cup, Strictly Come Dancing, and even Coronation Street.
Things changed with the second series. It returned in January 2024, after Christmas, with more promotion and less competition from other major shows. That move worked. 6.2 million people watched the first episode, the series averaged 6.9 million, and the final peaked at 8.2 million viewers.
These numbers come from official seven-day TV ratings published by Barb and analysed by the Press Association. They count everyone who watched the show either live or within seven days after it aired, including people who recorded it or watched it later on phones, tablets, laptops, or PCs. This is the main long-term way UK TV viewing is measured.
When The Traitors returned for its third series in January 2025, the ratings jumped again. It averaged 9.3 million viewers across the month and hit 10.0 million for the final. That’s more than double the audience of the first series final, although it still wasn’t the biggest TV audience of the year.
That record actually went to the show’s spin-off, The Celebrity Traitors. It drew an amazing average of 13.3 million viewers during its run in October and early November, and the final peaked at a huge 14.9 million.
Today, it’s very rare for a TV show, outside of live news or major sports, to get close to 15 million viewers in seven-day ratings. In fact, this has only happened three other times this decade:
- Gavin & Stacey final episode on Christmas Day 2024 (19.3 million)
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl on Christmas Day 2024 (17.1 million)
- Line Of Duty final episode on May 2, 2021 (15.8 million)
All of these programmes aired on BBC One.
The huge success of The Celebrity Traitors seems to have helped boost the popularity of the regular version too. Ratings for the current season of The Traitors (series four) are already higher than those for series one, two, and three.
So far, the first three episodes have each pulled in over 11 million viewers in seven-day ratings, with the first episode reaching 11.9 million. These are the only viewing figures Barb has released for the 2026 series so far.
If the show follows the same trend as previous seasons, audiences will continue to grow as the series goes on, peaking at the final, which airs on BBC One this Friday. It’s possible the final could attract more than 12 million viewers, although it may not reach the 14.9 million who watched the Celebrity Traitors final last year.
A new season of The Celebrity Traitors will air later this year. That’s when we’ll see whether the show can become even more popular, or if the Traitors craze has already reached its peak.