Paris Olympics Draws Big Crowd: Swimming, Soccer, Volleyball Deliver 32.4 Million Viewers for NBCUniversal on First Day of Competition

The first day of competition at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris on Satuday delivered more than 32 million viewers in the U.S. across multiple NBCUniversal platforms.

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NBCUniversal’s presentation on NBC, Peacock and other outlets of the first day’s events at the Paris Games added up to 32.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics data released by NBCU on Sunday. That’s a solid showing given NBCU’s long and pricey commitment to the Olympics. Viewership for day one of competition was up by some 83% since the last, COVID-challenged Summer Games were held in Tokyo in 2021. That event, staged without crowds in the stands, brought in 17.7 million viewers.

Peacock, which offers top-tier viewers the option of watching every single Olympic event live for the first time, drew 4.7 million viewers on Saturday, per NBCU.

The NBC broadcast network’s linear Olympics coverage on Saturday focused largely on men’s and women’s swimming events that yielded three medals for American athletes: A gold medal for Caeleb Dressel, a silver for Simone Manuel and a bronze for Katie Ledecky. Men’s soccer, beach volleyball, diving gymnastics qualifiers also aired live from 2 p.m.-5 p.m. ET across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2 and still more NBCU digital platforms. Those events were replayed with some updates in primetime hours from 8 p.m. -11 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock and USA Network.

NBCUniversal has billions invested in U.S. Olympics TV rights as well as the cost of producing and marketing the games. NBCU also hopes that Olympics are also a big driver of new subscriptions for Peacock.

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Saturday’s solid audience follows the strong turnout of more than 28 million viewers for Friday’s theatrical Opening Ceremony.

(Pictured: Caeleb Dressel, Team USA gold medal winner for swimming 4x100m freestyle relays)

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