Last night's debut of Series 3 of the multiple award-winning sitcom The Inbetweeners has set a new ratings record for digital channel E4.

More than 2.5 million watched the comedy on E4 and E4+1, according to overnight figures, with a peak audience of 3 million watching the last five minutes of the comedy. According to research by Broadcast, the channel's previous best performance was an episode of Friends from 2003, which was watched by 2.3 million.

The new episode of The Inbetweeners performed so well in its 10pm slot that it out-gunned Jamie Oliver's new show on E4's parent station Channel 4; plus out-ranked other terrestrial channels too, including ITV1. The final episode of Grandma's House on BBC Two starring Simon Amstell notably suffered from The Inbetweeners' dominance, managing to attract an audience of just 770,000.

The figures also suggest The Inbetweeners is moving from a cult hit to become a popular mainstream success as the ratings are double that of the previous series.

The plot of the new episode saw the school organise a charity fashion show, with the sitcom's four loveable losers proving a bigger hindrance to the organisation than anyone could have imagined. The show is expected to pick up even more viewers during the week via online catch-up service 4oD, the E4 repeat on Thursday (10:30pm) and terrestrial repeat on Friday (Channel 4, 10:55pm).

The show's creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris have a certified hit on their hands, with near universal glowing reviews in this morning's press. Metro reviewer Keith Watson said the episode had him "hooting like a naughty schoolboy" and The Guardian's Tim Dowling labelled the episode "terribly funny".