More than 20 million people - around a third of the UK population - watched EastEnders at some point during its live week, the BBC has said.
The BBC1 soap celebrated its 30th anniversary with a live week of programming to coincide with the final twists of its murder mystery storyline.
Thursday evening's instalment - which attracted a peak of 11.9 million viewers - was previously announced as the Walford soap's highest rated episode in its live week.
BBC iPlayer also enjoyed more than 11.5 million requests for EastEnders-related content last week, as viewers caught up to find out what happened to Lucy Beale.
And over 20 million people tuned in to at least one of last week's episodes, the BBC said.
The show's executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said that the cast and crew were delighted with the figures, which saw Thursday's show become the most watched TV programme of the year so far.
"We are all over the moon that we captured the nation's imagination with our Who Killed Lucy storyline and Kathy's surprise return," he said.
"My dedicated cast and crew have put so much time and love into our 30th anniversary celebrations, knowing that we have created a little piece of television history is the perfect reward for all our hard work."
BBC drama controller Ben Stephenson said: "It is testament to the original vision of Tony Holland and Julia Smith, as well as our amazing editorial team led by Dominic Treadwell-Collins that after 30 years EastEnders remains at its peak of creativity, ambition and modernity."
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