NBC's captivating coverage of the groundbreaking waterborne Olympic opening ceremony enthralled an impressive audience of over 28 million viewers across multiple platforms on Friday, marking a triumphant debut for NBCUniversal. This unprecedented spectacle, which saw athletes from 205 nations gracefully navigating the Seine via boats, garnered a staggering 28.6 million viewers on broadcast television and Peacock, with an additional 670,000 tuning in on Telemundo, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics' custom fast national data. This feat surpasses the viewership of both the Rio 2016 (26.5 million) and Tokyo 2021 (17.9 million) Summer Olympics openings, coming in second only to the iconic London 2012 ceremony (40.7 million viewers), reaffirming its status as the most watched summer opening since 2012.
Including the Winter Olympics in the comparison, Friday's extravaganza, adorned with awe-inspiring performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, stands tall as the most watched opening ceremony since the frosty 2014 Winter Games in Russia, which garnered 31.69 million viewers. NBC's ratings strategy masterfully blends live broadcasts during prime daylight hours (2-5 p.m. ET, most days) with primetime replays, ensuring maximum reach for the opening ceremony and the ensuing Olympic events.
Peacock's live stream of this historic moment, where the Seine served as the stage for a global coming together, captivated 2.5 million viewers, not only setting a new benchmark for the most-streamed Olympic opening ceremony but also crowning itself as the platform's all-time biggest entertainment event. With preliminary competitions preceding the grand event, Peacock and NBCUniversal's digital arm have already amassed an astonishing billion minutes of streaming by Friday's close – a sixfold increase compared to the 2019 Tokyo Olympics, underscoring the platform's meteoric rise in popularity (its subscriber base has quadrupled since the last Summer Olympics).
"Last night's opening ceremony, unparalleled in its ambition and complexity within Olympic annals, transformed Paris into a stage of global wonder, captivating a vast audience across NBCU's expansive platforms and etching records on Peacock," exulted NBC Sports President Rick Cordella. "The unwavering dedication of our production and engineering teams, coupled with extensive promotional efforts, has propelled us into a robust start that aligns perfectly with the expectations of our NBC stations, distribution partners, and advertisers. As we embark on the next two weeks of exhilarating competition, we stand firmly on solid ground, poised for an Olympic journey filled with unforgettable moments."
