The final — and biggest — marquee sporting event postponed from last year, the Tokyo Summer Olympics suffered the same fate as its predecessors.
The Tokyo Summer Olympics averaged 15.6 million viewers per night across NBC’s various television and digital platforms, marking the least-watched primetime Olympics on record, Summer or Winter. The previous low was set by the previous Olympics — 19.8 million for the PyeongChang Winter Games in 2018.
Tokyo is the first Summer Olympics to average fewer viewers than the preceding Winter Games since Athens in 2004, which followed a U.S. based Winter Olympics two years prior.
The primetime average from Tokyo marks a 42% decline from the previous Summer Games in Rio five years ago (27.0M) and a 50% drop from the London Olympics on NBC alone in 2012 (31.1M). Viewership fell 27% from the previous Summer Games low of 21.5 million for Sydney in 2000, the last Summer Olympics to take place in the fall.
Sunday’s Closing Ceremony averaged just 9.0 million viewers (8.81M on NBC alone), marking the smallest primetime Olympics audience on record. Viewership declined 47% from the Rio Closing Ceremony (17.0M).
On Saturday, the final night of competition averaged 10.5 million (8.45M on NBC alone) — down 36% from 2016 (16.3M) and the second-smallest primetime Olympics audience on record. Coverage on Friday night averaged 12.6 million (9.85M on NBC alone), down 40% from Rio (21.1M).
Tokyo generated the nine smallest primetime Olympics audiences since at least 1992 and 13 of the bottom 14.
Figures for the men’s and women’s basketball gold medal games, both won by the United States, were not immediately available. Both games aired on NBC starting at 10:30 PM ET, and it was not immediately clear if those figures were included in the primetime average.
The Tokyo Olympics failed to average 20 million viewers on 16 of 17 nights, more than the previous five Summer Olympics combined (11). On NBC alone, no night of the Games averaged even 17 million (the most-watched night, the opening Sunday, averaged 16.9 million).
The historically low Summer Olympics audience still compares favorably to the rest of television, averaging comfortably more viewers than the most recent NBA Finals (Bucks-Suns: 9.91M) and World Series (Dodgers-Rays: 9.79M).* That is not necessarily notable; the Olympics beat the NBA Finals and World Series even in 2016 — when both went seven games and featured 3-1 comebacks by teams ending historic championship droughts.
The Olympics averaged fewer viewers than NBC did for Sunday Night Football last season (17.4 million across all platforms), though it topped all other primetime series during the 2020-21 television season.
Delayed a year, the Tokyo Olympics was greeted with almost unprecedented hostility by the host country, its empty venues a blaring reminder of the miserable austerity that defines our age. Its biggest star, Simone Biles, made most of her headlines for being unable to compete — a story that soon became part of the soul-deadening U.S. culture wars. Add to those conditions the changing landscape of U.S. television, wherein traditional viewing has declined precipitously over the past two years.
The 42% decline for the Olympics is in line with what many other sports properties have experienced since the wave of cancellations and postponements that decimated the industry in March of last year. It is not far off the declines for last September’s Kentucky Derby (-43%), last October’s NBA Finals (-49%) or last November’s final round of the Masters (-48%). While the Olympics took place in its normal time of year, it was nonetheless pushed back a full 12 months from its original date.
* NBA Finals and World Series averages are for the primary network broadcast only.
Average primetime Olympics viewership
Since NBC began its streak of Summer Olympics in 1988.
Smallest primetime Summer Olympics audiences
Dating back to 1996 (these are almost certainly the smallest audiences since records began in 1988, but night-by-night viewership for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was not available).
