NBC almost doubles Beijing 2022 average ratings in first five days

NBC’s coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy has been delivering strong performance over the previous installment in China four years ago.

NBCUniversal has been averaging around 26.5 million views across all platforms during the first five days of the Olympics. That’s up around 93% over the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, which had an average of 13.7 million during the same time period, according to published figures from Nielsen.

NBCU also says that 6.3 billion minutes of Olympics content has been streamed on digital — with Peacock being the primary source — which outpaces the figure for all minutes streamed during either the 2018 or 2022 Winter Olympics.

Stronger ratings have been correlated to the narrower six-hour time zone difference between U.S. viewers and the host country — as opposed to 13 hours from China — as well as interest in Team USA athletes and early strong performances. 

For coverage of the opening ceremony Feb. 13, 2026, about 21.4 million viewers tuned in, which was up 34% from 2022. The 2026 telecast ended up with substitute hosts after NBC made changes to its talent lineup due to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie. Savannah Guthrie had been scheduled to co-host with Hoda Kotb. 

So far, the 2026 games are on pace to be the most-watched Olympics since 2014, when the games were in Sochi, Russia.

Coverage of the Olympics is airing on the NBC broadcast network, with notable events aired in primetime, some of them produced from tape. Late night coverage is also be offered, with events also available live on select platforms. Coverage is also appearing on USA Network and CNBC, which were spun-off from NBCU. 

By comparison, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, drew an average of 30.6 million viewers, which was up 82% over the previous games, the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021 after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Winter Olympics have fewer sports and events than the Summer Olympics, so it’s common to only compare the Summer Olympics to other summer Games and the Winter Olympics to other winter games.