The Love Island launch last night was the highest rating programme at 9pm across all channels

The Love Island launch last night was the highest rating programme at 9pm across all channels, winning the slot with 2.9m viewers and 16.4% share, peaking with 3.4m viewers.

This is more than double last year’s launch (which was watched by 1.3m viewers).

Last night’s launch is ITV2’s highest overnight rating since records go back, overtaking the previous record holder which was the Love Island series 3 finale (2.6m/12.5% share).

Additionally, a peak of 480,000 people watched the simulcast live on ITV Hub.

52% of last night’s launch audience were 16-34 year-olds with 1.5m 16-34 year old viewers watching and a 48% share of 16-34 year old viewing. This was up on last year’s launch by 900k viewers and 28 share points. Only Britain’s Got Talent on ITV main channel has had bigger audiences for this demographic on any channel so far this year.