England's Euro 2012 win over Sweden cheered by a peak of 16m viewers

England's thrilling 3-2 win over Sweden in Euro 2012 peaked with more than 16 million viewers on BBC1 on Friday night. Match of the Day Live: Euro 2012 averaged 10.96 million viewers, a 45.1% share, between 7pm and 10.15pm on Friday. Live coverage of the match itself, which was delayed until 8pm because of an electrical storm which affected the other group D match, averaged 14.1 million viewers and a 54.2% audience share over two hours. BBC1's first England game of the tournament had a five-minute peak of 16.25 million viewers. It had a 15-minute peak of 15.5 million (58%) between 9.30pm and 9.45pm. England's win attracted the biggest audience of the tournament so far, beating the average of 9 million viewers who tuned into ITV1's coverage of England's opening 1-1 draw with France on 11 June. The England-France game, which kicked off at 5pm, averaged 12.3 million for live match coverage, with a five-minute peak of 15.3 million. Million pound drop kicked The football inevitably played the other channels off the park. ITV1 sent out a second-string attack with a Lewis repeat watched by just 1.89 million viewers, an 8.1% share, between 8pm and 10pm. But Channel 4 put out one of its star performers with Davina McCall gameshow The Million Pound Drop Live. The start of its ninth series could only manage 1.14 million viewers, a 4.3% share, across Channel 4 and Channel 4 +1. It lost out to the end of BBC2's Gardeners' World, which had 1.2 million viewers, a 4.6% share, between 8pm and 9pm, including 69,000 viewers on BBC HD. All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC and some other channels including Sky1) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .