The Great British Bake Off has delivered another record-breaking audience for Channel 4 – but thanks only to millions of people who are catching up with the show after it has been broadcast.

Full ratings for Bake Off’s second episode, which aired on September 5, totalled a massive 9.2 million, according to new figures.

Judges Paul and Prue speak to Flo during Great British Bake Off

This is only slightly down on the 9.5 million viewers who watched the show’s launch.

Both of these numbers include people who recorded the episode and watched it up to seven days later.

By contrast, overnight ratings for Bake Off’s third episode, shown last night, were almost one million down on the equivalent figure for the launch.

It means roughly three million people aren’t watching Bake Off when it is first broadcast, preferring instead to catch up at a later date.

The full ratings of 9.2 million for Bake Off’s second episode are high enough to make it one of the top 10 largest audiences in Channel 4’s 35-year history.

In the battle for overnight viewers, last night’s Bake Off audience of 5.7 million was beaten by BBC1’s Doctor Foster, which pulled in an average of 6.1 million.

Bake Off does better when all the numbers are in, however: last week’s full ratings of 9.2 million just beat Doctor Foster’s 8.7 million.

The two programmes overlap on Tuesday evenings for 15 minutes between 9pm and 9.15pm.

Liverpudlian grandmother Flo became the third person to leave the Great British Bake Off tent after her pirate’s chest made of bread was not the treasure she hoped for.

All ratings for The Great British Bake Off include Channel 4+1.