The special hour-long episode, which featured Peggy and Archie's nuptials as well as the controversial death of Ronnie's covert daughter Danielle Jones, was seen by 10.58m (48.3%) at 7.30pm on BBC One.
BBC Three's later 10pm repeat added a further 1.24m (8%) and was the most watched multichannel programme of the day.
ITV's Emmerdale, during which Sandy started up a campaign to free Jasmine, was seen by 6.22m (33.1%) at 7pm.
Channel 4's screening of Hollyoaks was seen by 1.55m (8.8%) in its traditional 6.30pm slot, while 406k (2.4%) watched E4's first look at 7pm.
Five's outing of Neighbours logged 1.34m (10.6%) at 5.30pm, before its 7pm repeat on Fiver added 200k (1.2%).
Home and Away's 6.30pm edition on Five, meanwhile, put in 1.09m (6.9%) at 6pm. Fiver's first look attracted 409k (2.6%).
Ratings data supplied by Attentional
