THE final of the Betway UK Snooker Championship at York Barbican attracted a peak viewing figure of 2.5m on BBC Two.

The figure was 800,000 up on last year's peak audience of 1.7m and the 'average' audience during the final session was 1.7m which was an increase of 300,000.

World champion Mark Selby beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-7 in the final which took place on Sunday December 4.

The game also generated an increase in 'online traffic' for snooker content on the BBC Sport website with 2.9m browsers during the tournament, up 300,000 on 2015.

Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker, said: “These figures underline the growing popularity of our sport in the UK. The Betway UK Championship final in York was an all-time classic with an incredibly high standard so it’s no surprise that the figures are so high. We look forward to working closely with the BBC on bringing our sport to an ever expanding audience.”

The Barbican's deal to stage the UK Championship was recently extended until 2018.