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CBeebies' brand new online game The Lingo Show is proving a huge hit with the nation's little language learners, attracting a massive 238,000 unique users in the week of its launch with nearly a quarter of all unique users on the CBeebies' site visiting The Lingo Show's games page.

The new game – launched on 14 February – introduces different languages to a preschool audience. Following the CBeebies mantra of "learning through play", The Lingo Show features French, Spanish, Mandarin, Welsh, Punjabi, Urdu, Polish and Somali and celebrates the magic of language and different cultures through its collection of colourful bug characters.

As children play online, the bugs enlist them to prepare for the Big Bug Show where, through a series of playful activities, they can learn new words in context and then use them as they sing their hearts out to the finale song.

The Lingo Show content doesn't just include the game. The proposition also features makes, audio clips and songs designed to stimulate creativity and celebrate diversity. This additional content also attracted 136,000 unique users in the week of launch.

"We are thrilled that our Lingo Show bugs are proving such a huge hit with our little learners," says CBeebies Controller Kay Benbow. "We certainly don't expect children to be fluent at the end of it but we hope they'll have lots of fun learning about different languages and cultures."

The Lingo Show is a CBeebies in-house production. It is available at bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/lingoshow. Currently featuring French, Spanish and Mandarin, the Welsh language game is available from 1 March, with the other languages being rolled out later in the month.

Notes to Editors

CBeebies is dedicated to delighting and surprising its young audience and it remains the UK's most-watched and most-loved channel for the under-sixes.

Almost half of the target audience tune in every week (parents and carers with children aged from nought to three, and four- to six-year-olds in digital homes) with 55 per cent saying it is one of their favourite channels. CBeebies reach is around three times that of the nearest competitor.

The most popular shows include In The Night Garden, I Can Cook, Something Special and Waybuloo. New shows this year include Rastamouse, Little Charley Bear, Mr Bloom's Nursery and a brand-new series for CBeebies favourite Justin Fletcher.

The CBeebies website is hugely popular with young audiences and their parents and helps extend the "learning through play" philosophy. Last year it averaged at just under 800,000 unique users per week.

CBeebies has just been crowned Bafta's Children's Channel of the Year and is also Freesat Children's Channel of the Year.

BW2