Paris Olympics Beat Tokyo Competition Opening, Combined Viewership On NBCU Platforms Top 32M

NBCUniversal’s presentation Saturday of the Paris Olympics opening on NBC, Peacock, and across key NBCU platforms posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 32.4 million viewers, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

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That beats the opening Saturday of competition for the Tokyo Olympics, which drew 17.7 million across all platforms.

Highlighted by Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel anchoring respective gold and silver medal-winning 4x100m freestyle relays, a bronze for Katie Ledecky in the 400m free, victory for the U.S. men’s soccer team, beach volleyball, diving, and men’s gymnastics qualifiers, live coverage in the afternoon (Paris Prime: 2-5 p.m. ET) was followed by a primetime presentation (8-11 p.m. ET/PT).

Saturday’s audience follows Friday’s Opening Ceremony, which was the most-watched for a Summer Olympics since 2012, with 28.6 million viewers.

Led by Peacock, 4.7 million viewers streamed Saturday’s coverage across NBCUniversal digital platforms.

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Saturday also marked Peacock’s second-best day in engagement, behind only the Peacock AFC Wild Card Exclusive, which was the most-streamed event in U.S. history.

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day custom fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Live viewership from 2-5 p.m. ET (Paris Prime) is inclusive of NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2, and additional NBCU digital platforms. Primetime viewership includes NBC, Peacock, and USA Network. Official viewership will be available on Tuesday.

The NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock are the company’s primary platforms for its coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. NBCU owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, which are scheduled for Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028), and Brisbane (2032).

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