And the numbers are in.
One day after the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games reached its conclusion, NBCUniversal unveiled the data behind the television and streaming consumption from the competition.
With over 3,200 hours and 116 events of coverage across NBC’s platforms, the Milan Cortina Olympics became the most-watched Winter Games since Sochi in 2014 and delivered a 96% increase from the 2022 Beijing Games.
From the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 6 until the Closing Ceremony on Feb. 22, NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal Digital Platforms and Versant’s CNBC and USA Network averaged 23.5 million viewers across the afternoon and primetime windows (both ET/PT). That number was 12 million in Beijing.
All full 15 competition days topped 20 million viewers. That success translated to Peacock, where the platform achieved its biggest month ever as 16.7 billion minutes were streamed. That’s more than double of all previous Winter Olympics combined (6.9 billion minutes).
The U.S. vs. Canada women’s ice hockey gold medal game became the most-watched women’s hockey game on record, averaging 5.3 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock. It peaked at 7.7 million during overtime. The men’s viewership tally will be released on Tuesday.
USA Network, NBC Sports, NBC News, TODAY and NBC Nightly News all saw significant viewership increases throughout the Olympics. Just social video views on NBC News and TODAY’s Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube accounts were up 1,087% vs. Beijing.
NBC Sports’ social channels registered nearly 4.3 billion impressions, a 437% increase vs. Beijing and 231% vs. PyeongChang in 2018.
It was all part of NBC’s “Legendary February,” which also featured record-setting numbers for Super Bowl LX and NBA All-Star Weekend.
NBC will remain the home of the upcoming Olympics, including 2028 in Los Angeles and 2030 in the French Alps.
More Milan Cortina Olympics numbers are available on NBC Sports.
The 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will feature more events and will award more medals than prior Olympics.
