Nina Brantley, Nehmoosh Aryanpour/Getty
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Entertainment
Photos
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Entertainment
Royal Wedding
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Entertainment
Photos
Good thing Prince William and Princess Catherine didn't make any mistakes during their wedding last week because the numbers are in, and they show millions of people around the globe tuned in to the big day, either by flipping on the tube or by booting up a computer.
An average of 22.7 million viewers in the U.S. watched the April 29 nuptials live on 11 different channels including ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC America and CNN, according to The Nielsen Company.
Another 26 million viewers in the U.K. tuned in to watch the couple exchange vows on five channels, including BBC One, ITV1 and Sky News, making it one of the most-watched programs ever across the pond.
Complete worldwide numbers have not yet been compiled, but Nielsen's U.S. numbers show that of the 18.6 million households watching TV at that time (Nielsen figures there is more than one viewer per household) 54 percent of them watched the royal wedding.
In comparison to other royal weddings, 14.2 million households watched when Prince Charles wed Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, while just 3.3 million caught Prince Charles' second marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.
Fun as they are with all their tiaras and nobility, not to mention the breathless anticipation over the bride's gown, it seems royal weddings don't capture the attention of U.S. audiences as much as other events.
For example, 53.3 million households watched the 2011 Super Bowl, 28.9 million fired up the TV to see President Obama's inauguration in 2009, and 26.1 million households flipped the "on" button to see Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, according to Nielsen.
Of course television wasn't the only way people got a glimpse of the new duke and duchess of Cambridge exchanging vows. YouTube’s livestream of the wedding attracted about 400 million viewers from around the world, which made it the biggest ever livestreaming audience.
Meanwhile, Internet traffic on news-focused websites peaked at 5.3 million pageviews per minute at about 8:30 a.m. ET on the wedding date, making it the sixth biggest event in Internet history.
Even with all that day-of coverage, we know you'll want to relive the event again, so take a look at some of the best photos of the day right here.
