The news: The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics reinforced a familiar lesson for media buyers: Live sports still deliver scale—and streaming amplifies it.

The Games produced the strongest Winter Olympics audience in over a decade, boosted by marquee events and cross-platform distribution.

• The Olympics averaged 23.5 million US viewers across NBCUniversal platforms. Milano Cortina was the most-watched Winter Games since 2014, and viewership was 96% higher than Beijing in 2022, per NBC.
• The Opening Ceremony averaged 21.4 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, up 34% from the prior Winter Games.
• Streaming consumption surpassed 700 million minutes through the first Friday of competition, according to NBC Sports.

Measurement combined Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, early Nielsen estimates for the final days, and Adobe Analytics for digital streams.

NBC credited strong Team USA performances, expanded athlete access, and immersive production tools such as first-person drones and enhanced audio with driving engagement.

Zooming out: The Olympics were part of a broader February sports surge for NBC, which aired the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the NBA All-Star Game in the same month for the first time.

• Across those events, 215.6 million Americans watched at least part of the coverage, per Nielsen.
• Super Bowl 60 averaged 124.9 million viewers, the second-most-watched program in US history.
• The NBA All-Star Game drew 8.8 million viewers, its highest audience in 15 years.