Despite the numerous threats of boycott against the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel's participation over the war in Gaza, the song competition garnered higher ratings than in the past two years.
According to data from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), 163 million people watched the competition itself (including the broadcasts of both the semi-finals and the finals), a figure higher than last year's contest and the one from two years ago.
In the host country Sweden, 2.3 million viewers watched the competition, while 723,000 viewers tuned in from Switzerland, the winning country. The peak viewership was in Germany with 8.1 million viewers, followed by the United Kingdom with 7.7 million viewers. In France, 5.4 million people watched, and Croatia broke its Eurovision viewing record since 2006, with 1.1 million viewers. In Israel, an average of 1.1 million people watched the contest.
These figures are significant for Israel’s Kan Public Broadcasting Corporation and the European Broadcasting Union, as they indicate that calls for a boycott of Eurovision over Israel's participation did not affect the viewing numbers nor impact the nature of the competition’s viewership.
Israel's representative Eden Golan was a standout in the competition’s popular vote, becoming the second audience favorite, only slightly behind Croatia. Her powerful performance and strong public support highlighted her as a leading contender throughout the event.