Love Island suffers a major ratings blow as viewing figures for latest grand finale drop by more than two MILLION from last year – with just 1.5 million tuning in to watch Jess and Sammy crowned winners

The latest ratings for ITV2 flagship Love Island made for grim reading on Tuesday after combined viewing figures fell more than two million short of the impressive numbers set during its 2022 grand finale. 

Fans of the beleaguered show had already expressed their dismay after Jess Harding and unpopular late arrival Sammy Root were crowned winners ahead of clear favourites Lochan Nowacki and Whitney Adebayo. 

But figures suggest interest in the show, which airs nightly and commanded more than two million viewers an episode at its peak, has dramatically waned following its relaunch in 2015. 

Only 1.5 million tuned in to watch as Jess and Sammy won Monday evening’s final, a marginal increase on the 1.1 million who watched Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan win its second winter series in March. 

But latest figures represents an alarming change in fortunes and a marked difference from 12-months ago, when an impressive 3.4 million viewers watched Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti win its eighth series across ITV2 and ITV Hub.

Increase: The Love Island 2022 finale was watched by 3.4 million viewers across ITV2 and ITV Hub, up 100,000 compared to 2021

On that occasion ratings suggested a 100,000 surge in viewing figures and made it the most successful final since 2019, when Amber Gill and Greg O’Shea claimed the winner’s crown. 

However, it was a significant decrease from the opening episode of the 2022 series, during which a whopping five million viewers tuned in. 

Despite a dip across its two month run, the eighth series broke streaming records, with over 250 million streams across the series – making it the most watched series ever on ITV Hub.

An ITV2 spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Last night, Love Island came to an end with 1.5m viewers across all devices. It was up on the final of series 9 shown earlier this year by +0.2m viewers.

‘It had 0.5m 16-34 TV viewers, up on the final earlier in the year by +0.2m viewers. It was the most watched programme for 16-34s on any channel yesterday. 

‘For 16-34s, Love Island has won the overnight 9pm slot 45 times. That’s over 90% of episodes, excluding Unseen Bits.

‘Love Island has had over 300m streams on ITVX so far this year (based on streams to all series of Love Island).’