Former Vice President Joe Biden accepted the Democrat presidential nomination Thursday, but his speech drew fewer viewers than Hillary Clinton did in 2016, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research.

The Hill reports:

Biden’s speech was watched by 21.8 million people on TV, according to initial figures from Nielsen, beating out the early numbers for other major speeches at the convention earlier in the week. The figure, which does not include online streaming of the speech, is expected to grow when additional networks are added. […]

Still, the initial numbers mark a 21 percent drop from Clinton’s speech at the convention in 2016 when she accepted the Democratic nomination that year. It is also more than 38 percent lower than President Trump‘s acceptance speech at the Republican convention four years ago, which drew 34.9 million viewers.

On Wednesday, the Democrat National Convention (DNC) garnered 21.7 million viewers, tumbling 12 percent from 2016, according to Nielsen. Tuesday’s program had 6.13 million viewers on ABC, CBS and NBC, with figures plummeting 48 percent drop from the second night of the 2016 convention, The Hill noted.

Biden accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on the final night of the party’s convention on Thursday, saying President Donald Trump has “cloaked America in darkness” and urged voters to make a change. Biden, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008 before serving two terms as vice president under President Barack Obama, said the United States is facing four converging crises: a global pandemic, an economic crisis, “racial injustice,” and global warming.

“This is a life-changing election that will determine America’s future for a very long time,” he said. “Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy. They’re all on the ballot.”

Biden took aim at Trump, saying the president has brought “too much anger, too much fear, too much division” to the White House and vowed to serve as “an ally of light” if elected.

“While I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I will for those who did,” Biden said. “That’s the job of a president. To represent all of us, not just our base or our party. This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment.”

The UPI contributed to this report.