The NBCUniversal presentation of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is off to a fast start with thrilling moments and medal ceremonies throughout the early days of the proceedings. Preceding the athletic competitions though, the Opening Ceremony for the international event broke viewership records as the most-watched iteration of such an event for a Summer Olympics since London 2012.
The intricate production that included odes to the heritage of France, athletes arriving via boats down the Seine and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower elicited a total audience delivery of 28.6 million viewers, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen Media Research and Adobe Analytics. Compared to the last opening ceremony in Tokyo, average viewership improved by a factor of 60%. This viewership takes into account the live afternoon broadcast and replay in prime time.
The Telemundo presentation of the ceremony attained 666,000 viewers for the Opening Ceremony. Additionally, Peacock set a record by presenting the most-streamed Opening Ceremony of all time, accruing more than 2.5 million viewers. The presentation is the No. 1 entertainment event in the history of the platform. Through Sunday, streaming consumption of the Paris Olympics equated to approximately 4.5 billion minutes, surpassing the entirety of the Summer Olympics that took place in Tokyo three years ago.
“[The] Opening Ceremony, one of the most ambitious and complex in Olympic history, was a spectacle for those in attendance in Paris, delivered a huge audience across our NBCU platforms, and set records for Peacock,” Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports, said in a statement. “Thanks to the tireless effort of our production and engineering teams, and extensive promotion, we are off to a strong start that is in line with the expectations of our NBC stations, and distribution and advertising partners. We are in great position as we look forward to the next two weeks of competition.”
The opening Saturday of the Olympics on NBC, Peacock and other NBCUniversal platforms collected a total audience delivery of 32.4 million viewers. This is up 83% from the opening Saturday of competition that took place in the Tokyo Olympics.
Peacock secured its third-best day of engagement in platform history, taking part in the average of 4.7 million viewers that streamed coverage across NBCUniversal digital platforms. Highlights of the competition included medals for Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel in the 4x100m freestyle relays, along with a bronze medal for Katie Ledecky in the 400m free. The events of the day also included beach volleyball, diving, the men’s gymnastics qualifiers and a victory for the U.S. men’s soccer team over New Zealand.
Momentum continued on Sunday with NBC, Peacock and NBCUniversal platforms attaining a total audience delivery of 41.5 million viewers, nearly doubling the viewership of the opening Sunday of competition that took place in Tokyo. Simone Biles lead the United States to the top score in the women’s gymnastics qualifying round within the prime time coverage. Moreover, Leon Marchand won gold in the 400m individual medley in his home country of France and the U.S. women’s rugby team defeated Brazil.
The U.S. men’s basketball team earned a 110-84 victory over Serbia in the first game of its quest for a gold medal, amassing a total audience of 10.9 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. This is a larger audience than the team had for its gold-medal victory in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 against France, a matchup that averaged 9.3 million viewers. The U.S. women’s soccer team attained an average of 4.2 million viewers later on Sunday on USA Network and Peacock.
Peacock earned its second-best day of engagement in platform history on Sunday, which is only behind the AFC Wild Card Game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs that accounted for the most live-streamed event in U.S. history. Sunday’s coverage drew an audience of 6 million viewers on Peacock and NBCUniversal’s digital platforms.
Over the three days of broadcast coverage in Paris, NBCUniversal has attained a total audience delivery average of 34.5 million viewers across Paris prime time (2-5 p.m. EST) and U.S. prime time (8-11 p.m. EST) broadcast windows. As a whole, the viewership is up 79% from the Tokyo Olympics, which averaged 19.3 million in this regard.
