Peak was 60,000 higher than previous record from 2022

Manchester United League Cup Carabao Cup EFL football

The League Cup Final saw a record 4.26 million peak audience tune into Sky Sports to see Manchester United defeat Newcastle United 2-0.

This was 60,000 higher than the previous record, which came in 2022 when Liverpool won the trophy against Chelsea on penalties. In addition, the average audience for 2023 was more than half a million higher than that match, with 3.79 million viewers tuning in across the 90 minutes.

The day of the final was also a hit on social media, with the EFL’s social channels reaching 9.5 million accounts, and videos views over 4.5 million

Over the entire competition, the cumulative audience reached over 18 million, an increase of more than one million on 2021-22. The average audience was 1.2 million, up from 1.13 million.

Ben Wright, EFL chief commercial officer, said: “These record-breaking figures demonstrate the continued popularity of the Carabao Cup, and the value the competition holds in the football calendar for supporters up and down the country.

“Over four million people watching at home and 87,000 spectators in the ground represented a fitting finale to a fantastic 2022-23 competition, and I would like to thank Sky Sports for making the coverage of this season’s Carabao Cup the best yet.”

Jonathan Licht, managing director at Sky Sports, added: “We are proud to be long term partners of the EFL and Carabao Cup, providing millions of fans access to the competitions across all our platforms. Through our scale, promotion, and innovation in coverage, we have continued to grow audiences for the Carabao Cup, and are pleased to see that reflected in this years’ final, in partnership with the EFL.”

The EFL recently put out an invitation to tender for its media rights from next season. Sky Sports currently airs all of its competitions in the UK, but Wright told Broadcast Sport last year that the EFL is open to “everything” in the next deal - including ending the 3pm blackout or going with a global rights deal as MLS has done with Apple TV+.