U.S. Men’s Basketball Victory over France Was Most Watched Gold Medal Game Since 1996

STAMFORD, Conn. —The U.S. Men’s Basketball Team’s down to-the-wire 98-87 victory over France produced some ratings gold for NBCUniversal, with an average audience of 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. That made it the most-watched gold medal game since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, based on fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

The game peaked at 22.7 million viewers from 5-5:15 p.m. ET as Team USA pulled away for the win. During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the U.S.-Yugoslavia matchup drew 25.8 million.

Final data for the full Olympics hasn’t been released, but beginning with Friday’s Opening Ceremony, NBCUniversal has a posted a 16-day Total Audience Delivery average of 31.3 million viewers across the combined live Paris Prime (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) time periods – up 82% from Tokyo (17.2 million).

Led by Peacock, the Men's Gold Metal game also ranked as the most-streamed event of the Paris Olympics across NBCU digital platforms, with an average minute audience (AMA) of 2.7 million viewers.

Earlier on Saturday, the U.S. Women’s National Team’s 1-0 victory over Brazil in the gold medal soccer match (11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET) averaged approximately 9.0 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, marking the most-watched gold medal soccer game since the 2004 Athens Olympics.

NBCUniversal’s presentation of the final Saturday of Paris Olympics competition on NBC, Peacock, and across key NBCU platforms posted a projected Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 30.7 million viewers, according to fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics – nearly tripling the audience for the comparable Saturday of competition for the Tokyo Olympics (11.7 million across all platforms).

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day 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, E!, CNBC, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2, and additional NBCU digital platforms. Primetime viewership includes NBC, Peacock, USA Network, Paris Extra 1 and Paris Extra 2.