A burnt out car in Toxteth, Liverpool destroyed during the riots on Tuesday night. Photograph: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

As cities including Manchester and Birmingham became embroiled in the fourth night of riots to hit the UK on Tuesday, news-hungry viewers provided record audiences for Sky News and the BBC News channel.

BBC News channel attracted a daily audience of 13.1 million, easily beating Monday's previous record audience of 8.8 million. The daily audience figure is based on 15-minute reach – the number of viewers who tuned to the channel for at least a quarter of an hour during the day.

The BBC News channel audience peaked at 2.6 million between 8.45pm and 9pm.

Sky News also easily topped its record-setting Monday 15-minute daily reach figure, with 9.28 million on Tuesday. The previous day it had a daily reach of 6.81 million viewers, the biggest daily audience figure since its Iraq war coverage in 2003.

It is the biggest audience Sky News has attracted since it started recording viewer levels in 2001, also easily surpassing the 5 million that tuned in during coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

BBC1's 10pm bulletin attracted 7.6 million viewers – up 500,000 on the previous night – a 33.6% share. The bulletin peaked in its opening quarter hour with 8.1 million, well ahead of its normal audience of about 5 million.

The channel's 6pm news also did well attracting 5.3 million – also up 500,000 over Monday night – and a 29.7% share against a normal level of 3 to 4 million.

Viewing built as the BBC1 bulletin gave way to the 6.30pm regional news programmes from around the country, peaking at 6.4 million in the first 15 minutes.

News at Ten on ITV1 attracted 2.9 million viewers – up 800,000 on Monday – and a 13% share. The network's 6.30pm national bulletin drew 3.9 million and a 20% share.

The BBC's news website also went one better than Monday night recording its biggest-ever day in terms of UK audience with 8.1 million unique users.

Globally it was the second biggest day ever with 13 million users, beaten only by the 15.9 million who visited on the day of the Japanese earthquake.

The BBC has received 250 complaints about its coverage of the riots. Complaints range from accusations of bias against the police, giving too much coverage of the developing riots and that the BBC used the word "protesters" rather than "rioters".

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