A muscular demonstration of media impact from the Tour de France? One might say, "well, what a discovery!", reading the report presented by ASO regarding television viewership and beyond. The wealth of striking data, however, reveals how the 2026 edition just completed was like an exceptional harvest, just consider certain viewership peaks: 8.8 million viewers for the Paris finish, 64.6% share for the Alpe d'Huez finish on France 2, the leading channel in France every afternoon during the 3 weeks of the event 43 million video views on france.tv and franceinfo platforms: a historic record (+80% compared to 2025).

Why not also mention 11.4 million viewers for the france.tv sport channel? After all, there were nearly 150 million television viewers across Europe (coverage at the 1-minute threshold), or over 700 million hours of TV viewing for the live broadcast on general and sports channels (source: Glance - UER AUDIENCE TV IN FRANCE).

Ask Rai and Eurosport if the Grande Boucle's viewership was satisfactory: you'll get a resounding yes. A powerful result, perhaps fueled by "Seixasmania", a remarkable finding: 45.6 million French viewers (+600,000 compared to 2025) followed the 2026 Tour de France live on France Télévisions (coverage at the 1-minute threshold), 3.7 million viewers (+6% compared to the average of the last two years) against an average 40.8% share (+1.6 points compared to the average of the last two years).

It doesn't end there: 260 million views on LETOUR.FR social media, while in terms of digital audiences, from June 29 to July 26, 2026, according to Piano Analytics, the Race Center achieved 24.8 million live visits (+13% compared to the average of the last five editions) 194,000 active users (unchanged from 2025), more than 92 million visits (+27% compared to the average of the last five editions), of which 60 million from abroad. That amounts to more than 307 million page views (+21% compared to the average of the last five editions).

The mobile application performance deserves mention: more than 35 million sessions on the official app (+29% compared to the average of the last five editions), more than 237 million page views (+11% compared to the average of the last five editions), more than 1,140,000 members (+160,000 compared to 2025). And nearly 8 million newsletters opened.

The Tour boasts 15.5 million social media fans (+6% since the beginning of July) and 54.8 million interactions (likes, comments, shares). Mind-boggling numbers, a whirlwind of interest with a touch of virality: the most-viewed post (21.4 million) is the one from Ineos with wrists cooled down before the team time trial in Barcelona.

A note on a dynamic that deserves further investigation: only 1 correspondent from Italian sports or general newspapers, despite press rooms that were anything but empty, even though the methods of following the great event haven't really changed yesterday, including remote coverage. The rescue of this noble species is urgent: as if it were a Panda.