Winter Olympics Viewership Peaks with Hockey Leading the Pack

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Winter Olympics Draw Strong Viewership with Hockey Leading the Charge

The Winter Olympics are nearing their peak, capturing significant attention, particularly in the realm of hockey. Despite being held during the day, hockey games have maintained strong viewership numbers. For instance, the U.S. versus Sweden match recently attracted a peak of 8.9 million viewers, with an average of 6.9 million viewers.

NBC's coverage continues to draw over 20 million viewers across its live afternoon and primetime programming, maintaining these high numbers for an impressive 13 consecutive days. Such robust viewership for the Olympics is relatively rare, generally only seen in major sports like football.

In terms of digital consumption, NBC's streaming service, Peacock, has seen about 12.9 billion minutes of Olympic viewing so far, nearly doubling the total streaming figures of all previous Olympics. Additionally, significant viewership spikes are expected from recent events such as the U.S. victory over Canada in women’s hockey and Mikaela Shiffrin’s gold medal win, though specific numbers have yet to be released. Also anticipated is the potential matchup between Canada and the U.S. men in hockey, with fans eagerly awaiting this high-stakes game.

Skating events have also drawn large audiences, underlining the diverse appeal of the Winter Olympics and asserting their place as a prominent and widely viewed global sporting event.