The Beijing Olympics are officially the least-watched Games in primetime on NBC ever. The two-week event averaged 10.7 million viewers per night on television, NBC announced on Monday, with that number rising slightly to 11.4 million including all other viewing platforms.
Tokyo, the previous lowest, averaged 15.1 million TV viewers in primetime. Four years ago, the Pyeongchang Games averaged 17.8 million viewers per night. NBC owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032.
NBC’s coverage did also have a digital presence, though. The network said 160 million Americans watched the Olympics across all NBCUniversal platforms. Peacock, which launched in 2020, had its “best 18-day span of usage” during the Games.
If the Games’ viewership did have one bright spot, it was the women’s hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States. It averaged 3.54 million viewers, more than any NHL game televised in the U.S. this season.
There were 4.3 billion streaming minutes across digital and social media, making Beijing the company’s most-streamed Winter Games ever. That figure was 5.6 billion for Tokyo.
(Photo: Xu Zijian / Xinhua via Getty Images)
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