Queen Elizabeth’s funeral today is forecast to pull in more than four billion viewers worldwide today, breaking the record for the “most watched broadcast of all time”, according to media reports. As Statista’s Anna Fleck notes, if industry experts’ predictions are accurate, then the funeral will nearly double the UK’s previous most watched royal broadcast – the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 with a viewership of 2.5 billion people.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The UK royal family’s televised events have historically brought in huge audiences from the world over. Where William and Kate’s wedding saw 162 million people tune in worldwide in April 2011, Harry and Meghan’s saw an estimated 1.9 billion in 2018.

Music events such as the Live 8 charity concert of 2005, and sporting events including FIFA World Cup finals also bring in peak figures, with the most watched broadcast event in history reportedly the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony of 1996, where U.S. boxing legend Muhammad Ali lit the torch to kick off the games.

The late queen’s funeral attracted some two million people to join the state funeral procession in person, including more than 70 heads of government. It was the UK’s biggest ever security operation, with over 10,000 police personnel on duty.

While the exact cost of the funeral has not yet been reported, estimates for the entirety of the proceedings following the queen’s death have been placed anywhere between £8 million and £6 billion, expected to be part-funded by taxpayers and part by the royal family. This has raised debate in the UK over the use of public funds as the country faces a cost of living crisis.

However, as Charlotte Allen wrote at The Epoch Times, in today’s Britain, and indeed in much of the West, churchgoing is in steep decline, and it’s common to regard the monarchy as a taxpayer-supported fossil with a dim future. Indeed, when Diana died in 1997, there was a surge of populist contempt for her former husband, then Prince Charles and heir to the throne, and for the royal family in general, believed to have mistreated the young princess. Revelations about Charles’s younger brother Prince Andrew’s alleged dalliances with an underage girl on Jeffrey Epstein’s island added fuel to the fire, and many predicted that the monarchy would not outlive Elizabeth.

Yet when King Charles III formally ascended the throne at St. James’s Palace on Sept. 10, two days after his mother’s death, huge crowds gathered outside to sing “God Save the King” and give three cheers. There seemed to be an instinctive understanding that monarchy was an institution that transcended individual monarchs and that it was an institution worthy of honor.

Even in our secular age, people yearn for faith and ritual and ceremonial meaning that derives from something outside the ordinariness of daily life. It’s not surprising that the ceremonies of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral resonate so deeply with billions of people.

Queen Elizabeth’s funeral today is forecast to pull in more than four billion viewers worldwide today, breaking the record for the “most watched broadcast of all time”, according to media reports. As Statista’s Anna Fleck notes, if industry experts’ predictions are accurate, then the funeral will nearly double the UK’s previous most watched royal broadcast – the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 with a viewership of 2.5 billion people.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The UK royal family’s televised events have historically brought in huge audiences from the world over. Where William and Kate’s wedding saw 162 million people tune in worldwide in April 2011, Harry and Meghan’s saw an estimated 1.9 billion in 2018.

Music events such as the Live 8 charity concert of 2005, and sporting events including FIFA World Cup finals also bring in peak figures, with the most watched broadcast event in history reportedly the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony of 1996, where U.S. boxing legend Muhammad Ali lit the torch to kick off the games.

The late queen’s funeral attracted some two million people to join the state funeral procession in person, including more than 70 heads of government. It was the UK’s biggest ever security operation, with over 10,000 police personnel on duty.

While the exact cost of the funeral has not yet been reported, estimates for the entirety of the proceedings following the queen’s death have been placed anywhere between £8 million and £6 billion, expected to be part-funded by taxpayers and part by the royal family. This has raised debate in the UK over the use of public funds as the country faces a cost of living crisis.

However, as Charlotte Allen wrote at The Epoch Times, in today’s Britain, and indeed in much of the West, churchgoing is in steep decline, and it’s common to regard the monarchy as a taxpayer-supported fossil with a dim future. Indeed, when Diana died in 1997, there was a surge of populist contempt for her former husband, then Prince Charles and heir to the throne, and for the royal family in general, believed to have mistreated the young princess. Revelations about Charles’s younger brother Prince Andrew’s alleged dalliances with an underage girl on Jeffrey Epstein’s island added fuel to the fire, and many predicted that the monarchy would not outlive Elizabeth.

Yet when King Charles III formally ascended the throne at St. James’s Palace on Sept. 10, two days after his mother’s death, huge crowds gathered outside to sing “God Save the King” and give three cheers. There seemed to be an instinctive understanding that monarchy was an institution that transcended individual monarchs and that it was an institution worthy of honor.

Even in our secular age, people yearn for faith and ritual and ceremonial meaning that derives from something outside the ordinariness of daily life. It’s not surprising that the ceremonies of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral resonate so deeply with billions of people.