The station, which famously has an annual licence fee-funded budget of £100m, has reported a 0.5 percentage point increase in share among 25- to 34-year-olds on its predecessor BBC Choice.
The BBC channel, which launched in February, saw its share of audience among the 25-34 target audience grow from an average of 1.9% across 2002 on BBC Choice to 2.4% on BBC Three.
The BBC said that latest audience figures show that over two-thirds of the UK's digital audience of 17.4m people have watched BBC Three since its launch for 15 minutes or more, giving it a weekly reach of 3.4m.
Earlier this month, the government warned the BBC that it could lose the licence for its new digital youth station if it fails to perform.
The station, which launched on cable and satellite after a year's delay, has come in for criticism since its launch and reports have suggested that ratings for some of its programming have been low.
It has come under fire for programmes including a long-running documentary following former football hard man turned actor Vinnie Jones, which received very low viewing figures.
However, despite the criticism, it has won plaudits for some of its programming, including new drama in the shape of 'Burn It', celebrity share trading show 'Celebdaq' and comedy with '3 Non Blondes'. It has also scored high viewing figures for advanced episodes of soap 'EastEnders' and US hit political thriller '24', starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Some shows are also set for a wider audience, having performed well on BBC Three. A special run of '3 Non Blondes', which features an all-girl stunt show starring black female comics Tameka Empson, Jocelyn Jee Esien and Ninia Benjamin, is being screened on BBC Two this summer.
'3 Non Blondes' has seen its audience grow from 19,000 on launch night to a peak of 241,000 and the girls were recently described by the EMMA judges as "the freshest new talent around".
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