Yahoo News Love Island launch sees viewers drop: How ratings have changed since 2015
The reality show has lost over a million viewers in a year
Love Island viewing figures have slumped dramatically for the new series which premiered earlier this week.
The launch episode of the latest season was watched on ITV2 by an average of 1.3 million people, over a million viewers fewer than 2022's summer launch which reached an average audience of 2.4 million.
The figure for the latest series is a whole two million less than the number that tuned in to watch the premiere episode in 2019 but Love Island has suffered controversy and a decline in popularity since.
ITV said that the figure grew to 1.7 million when factoring in streaming numbers from ITVX and that the show was the second most watched in its time slot.
The episode opened with a dramatic format change which left the new islanders confused as the boys and girls arrived at the same time and the public had already voted for who they wanted to see coupled up initially.
Love Island controversies
Love Island has faced a number of criticisms in recent years particularly relating to the mental welfare of the contestants.
Three people involved in the show committed suicide within a 20 month span including original host Caroline Flack.
ITV has attempted to mitigate things by banning contestants from social media while on the show.
Love Island: Read more
Maya Jama returns to Love Island with three stunning looks (Yahoo Life UK)
Love Island also faces competition from a number of other dating shows such as the BBC's I Kissed a Boy, the UK's first gay dating show which is hosted by Dannii Minogue.
Love Island has also introduced a number of changes to the format this year in an attempt to freshen the show up.
Previously, the girls arrived first but in a twist people of both sexes entered the villa together. The girls were also asked to reveal if they were happy with their partners after the public vote had opened.
Love Island continues to air daily on ITV2 and ITVX and is hosted by Maya Jama.
Watch below: Love Island contestants will be banned from social media to shield themselves and their families from abuse.
