Traditional linear TV households spent over 17 hours on average watching the Paris 2024 Olympics, almost twice as much time as they spent on the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, according to data from Roku Advertising. While linear TV reach grew 17% since the 2021 games, streaming reach on Roku increased an astonishing 100%. Streaming hours were up 168%.
All demographics on Roku streamed more Olympics this time around, but households with Gen Zers and people over 65 saw some of the strongest streaming adoption rates. Streaming viewership across all ethnicities was also up, with Black viewership increasing 119% since the 2021 games. Among audiences that watched the Tokyo Olympics on linear TV, only 44% returned to watch the 2021 games on linear TV this year. Meanwhile, two out of five linear TV viewers during Tokyo opted to switch to streaming for the Paris games.
In its streaming debut, the NBC Olympic Zone became a hub for all things related to the Paris games. Viewers could easily navigate to Peacock’s comprehensive Paris 2024 Olympics coverage via a home screen marquee ad. There, fans could watch more than 5,000 hours of live events alongside replays and highlight reels without having to flip through channels or navigate through complex menus. The NBC Olympic Zone experience allowed audiences to interact and find content with no barriers. Roku served as the front door to the Olympics, giving viewers a positive, immersive experience without feeling heavy-handed.
Matt Schnaars, President, NBCUniversal Content Distribution, said: “Creating partnerships like the NBC Olympic Zone on Roku, which emphasize tentpole content in the user experience on our partner platforms, has proven to provide deeper engagement.”
The traditional Summer Olympic sports of swimming, gymnastics and track & field were the most popular of the Paris games. Each sport drew an audience of over 80 million linear TV viewers. Gymnastics got a boost thanks to Simone Biles, who was the most searched-for athlete on the Roku platform. She had 53% more search queries than the next most-searched Olympic athlete, basketball legend LeBron James. But newer sports are also growing their fan bases. Surfing, which is in its second year as an Olympic sport, had a 58% increase since the 2021 Olympics in linear TV viewership – reaching about 46 million viewers.
The most watched match was the Gold Medal game between the U.S. and France’s men’s basketball teams on linear TV. The average Basketball viewer stayed dedicated, watching over 6.5 hours of games. That’s twice as much time as they spent during the 2021 Olympics.
Thanks to increased broadcast availability, women’s Olympic sports got more visibility than ever. Women’s field hockey matches reached an estimated 10 million adults. Viewership of the women’s sport on linear TV has increased about 220% from 2021 to 2024. For comparison, men’s field hockey viewership only rose around 19% percent in the same time frame.
U.S. women’s water polo also got a boost thanks to the social media buzz around Flavor Flav’s sponsorship of the team. Three times as many viewers, or 35 million adults, watched the Paris matches than tuned in to the event during Tokyo 2021.
Other viewership winners included women’s soccer, which grew 78% to reach 30.7 million people, as well as women’s volleyball which increased 31% to reach 50.2 million people. Women’s basketball went up 43% to reach 41.9 million people. All three of these U.S. women’s teams also took home the gold.