2020 Tokyo Olympics Wrap Up
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics concluded on August 8th with the Closing Ceremonies. This has been a unique Olympic experience for the athletes and fans due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. With limited in-person attendance the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had a tall task in front of them. This unique challenge presented a question that our industry is facing more frequently than ever: how do you create an immersive and engaging experience for fans who may not be able to attend in person? The viewership ratings are down from previous Olympics, averaging 15.5 million prime-time viewers. The numbers were affected by the significant time difference between the U.S. and Japan, the impacts of COVID-19, and the absence of high-profile athletes, such as Simone Biles. But viewership numbers don’t tell the full story.
Despite the lower viewership, there are still a lot of positive takeaways from this year's Olympics. For starters, these 2020 Olympic Games were the most gender equal in history, with women making up nearly 49% of all athletes who participated in the games. NBC’s 17 nights of prime-time coverage ranked just behind “Sunday Night Football” as the second-most-watched show in 2020-21 for the network. On top of that, viewers streamed a record 5.5 billion minutes of events across social media and online platforms such as NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports app, and streaming service Peacock. Those numbers make the 2020 Games the most-streamed Olympics ever.
Women’s medal count via Just Women’s Sports
Another positive takeaway is the success displayed by the women athletes, especially the U.S. women Olympians. 53.6% of Team U.S.A athletes were women, and they were responsible for 66 of the 113 medals won by Team U.S.A, which is 58.4%. The Team U.S.A women actually earned more total medals than any other country, except the Russian Olympic Committee and China.
With all the challenges that stood in the way of these Olympic Games the results in viewership were somewhat expected. Even though the viewership was down, there is reason to be optimistic about the coverage and the ongoing opportunities to engage Fluid Fans:
NBCUniversal presenting over 7,000+ hours of Olympic coverage.
150 million Americans watched NBC’s Tokyo Olympics presentation.
Closing Ceremonies coverage on NBC marked the 135th consecutive Summer Olympics night that NBC Olympic coverage ranked #1 in prime-time.
More than 120 billion minutes of Tokyo Olympics content consumed across all NBCUniversal platforms (television, digital, social).
The IOC reported that it doubled its digital engagement from the Rio Olympics, with Olympic social media posts generating more than 2 billion media engagements.
When taken at face value, the viewership numbers could tell a grim story for the 2020 Olympic games. But this Olympics saw the inclusion of five new sports, in skateboarding, surfing, katate, 3X3 basketball ,and sport climbing, which the IOC is hoping will help draw in younger fans. Catering to this younger audience is a focus of the IOC, and it appears to be working. NBCUniversal’s Olympics channel on TikTok, for example, saw an increase in followers of more than 348% since the opening ceremonies. In Canada, fans digitally streamed more than 37 million video views on CBC.ca, CBC Gem, and the CBC Olympics App during the course of the games. Fans are increasingly digital natives and their behavior reflects that. In the Age of the Fluid Fan, defining success with viewership numbers or attendance is not enough. As technology continues to change what it means to be a fan, so too should our metrics.