The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26 averaged 28.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock on Friday, becoming the most-watched opening ceremony for a Summer Olympics since London 2012, according to fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. An additional 666,000 viewers watched this year’s Opening Ceremony on Telemundo.
“Last night’s Opening Ceremony, one of the most ambitious and complex in Olympic history, was a spectacle for those in attendance in Paris, delivered a huge audience across our NBCU platforms, and set records for Peacock,” said NBC Sports President Rick Cordella in a statement released on Saturday. “Thanks to the tireless effort of our production and engineering teams, and extensive promotion, we are off to a strong start that is in line with the expectations of our NBC stations, and distribution and advertising partners. We are in great position as we look forward to the next two weeks of competition.”
The Total Audience Delivery (TAD) for the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony was up +60% or 10 million viewers higher than the Tokyo Opening Ceremony (17.9 million) in 2021 (the delayed 2020 Ceremony) and +8% higher than the Rio Opening Ceremony (26.5 million) in 2016.
Overall, the Paris Opening Ceremony has emerged as the most streamed ever (more than 2.5 million viewers) and ranks as the No. 1 entertainment event in Peacock history.
Across all NBCUniversal-owned platforms, and led by Peacock, the Opening Ceremony’s streaming consumption exceeded one billion minutes through Friday which is six times greater than the Tokyo Olympics during the comparable time frame.
NBCUniversal says this year’s Opening Ceremony generated +320% greater search volume for brands advertising during the ceremony than the Tokyo Opening Ceremony. The company holds U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, including Paris (2024), Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032). The 2030 Olympic Winter Games host city has yet to be chosen.
Final viewership figures for the Paris Opening Ceremony will be published on Monday.