Samba TV: Nearly 60M U.S. Homes Watched the Olympics

SAN FRANCISCO—New data from Samba TV confirms that the Paris Olympics hit gold with audiences as the games saw an 11% increase in household viewership compared to the Tokyo games that aired in 2021.

More than 1 million new households viewed the games on most days as Americans caught Olympic fever. Overall, Samba TV reported that the Paris games saw a total 59.4 million US households watch the games across linear and streaming over the past few weeks.

Of special note is how many new households caught Olympic fever each day. There was no day throughout the Olympics where fewer than 600k new U.S. households tuned-in to watch, and 12 of the 17 days saw more than 1 million new household views, per Samba TV data.

More specifically, Samba TV reported that:

• 59.4 million U.S. households watched the Paris 2024 Olympics on linear and streaming throughout the full length of the games. This was a 25% increase from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and an 11% increase from the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
• Viewership was highest on day 3 of the Olympics (7/28), with 27.8 million U.S. households watching. That was the day the U.S. women’s gymnastics team made its Paris debut. The second highest viewership occurred on day 10 (8/4), with 25.7 million households watching, which also corresponded with women’s gymnastics.
• Olympics fans were eager for the games to begin and started watching early. By day 4, 69% of households who would ultimately watch the games had already done so. By day 7, that number increased to 80%, and by day 12 (of 17) a full 96% of Olympics viewers had tuned-in to the games already.
• Although Olympics fans began watching the games early, new events continued to bring in new viewers throughout the length of the games. There was no day throughout the Olympics where fewer than 600k new U.S. households tuned-in to watch, and 12 of the 17 days saw more than 1 million new household views. In particular, a high number of U.S. households that hadn’t previously watched the games tuned-in on 8/10, which corresponded with the men’s basketball final between the U.S. and France.
• White, high income households over-indexed based on viewership of the Olympics. White households over-indexed by 5% compared to their place within the census, while households in the $200k+ income bracket saw the highest over-index of any income group (+8%).