While some critics emerged during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday, the opening day of competition on Saturday ended up being a big hit for NBC.
NBC issued a press release on Sunday to share their ratings from Saturday. A total of 32.4 million viewers tuned into the games on Saturday, an 83-percent increase from the opening day of competition at the Tokyo Olympics, which brought in 17.7 million viewers.
These numbers mark a pretty incredible high as of late for NBC in regards to the Olympics on multiple fronts. It is the single most-watched Olympics day since August 16, 2016, during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
Peacock, which is NBC’s streaming platform, was also a big winner on Saturday. The platform experienced the most engagement for any singular event except for the NFL Wild Card Game this past season between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins streamed exclusively on Peacock.
This certainly begins an impressive early trend for the Paris Olympic Games that NBC has to be pleased about thus far. Despite the criticism towards the opening ceremony coverage, the event brought in 28.6 million viewers, the most the network has had for an opening ceremony since the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
While NBC’s strategy of using celebrities as a part of their event coverage may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it seems to be a strategy that is certainly working so far. Either that, or there is a higher demand for Olympic competition at the moment than there has been in quite some time.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.