The XXIV Olympic Winter Games from Beijing, China have come to a close but the event was a rating success with a record-setting 4.3 billion minutes streamed across NBCUniversal digital and social media platforms. 3.9 billion of those minutes were streamed across Peacock, which led the way, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app. Compared to the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, streaming viewership for this year’s Games increased by 78%. NBCU’s average minute audience of 516,000 viewers in primetime is the best ever for an Olympics.
Peacock live-streamed every event at the Winter Games for the first time, while recording its best 18-day span of usage during the games. Peacock and NBCU’s digital coverage accounted for 6 of the 10 most-streamed primetime presentations in Olympics history.
“With sharply increased signups, usage and awareness, Peacock streamed every Olympic moment for the first time ever and delivered a user experience that was greatly enhanced from just six months ago. Over the course of the Games, we delivered what was promised to our advertising partners and delivered unmatched promotion for our company,” said Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports in a statement.
Across linear and streaming, NBCU presented a record of over 2,800 hours of Winter Games coverage with 160 million Americans watching the event. Closing Ceremony coverage on NBC and Peacock was the109th consecutive Olympic night that NBC ranked #1 in primetime. The Winter Games average 11.4 million viewers across linear and streaming, which is lower than the 15.6 million average viewers of this past summer’s Tokyo Games.