Why Beijing 2022 is most-watched and digitally engaged Winter Olympics ever, with social media stars like Eileen Gu driving the audience
- Games attract almost 600 million Chinese viewers in first week, with over 100 million Americans tuning in
- Fans are also active on social media – on Olympics’ channels alone, there have been 2.5 billion engagements
The Winter Olympics attracted almost 600 million Chinese viewers in its first week, making it the most-watched Winter Games ever, according to figures released by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
As of last Thursday, more than 515 million have tuned into the events on state-owned CCTV (China Central Television). An estimated half a billion watched the opening ceremony.
In Hong Kong, the Games were broadcast exclusively on TVB, where nearly 3 million watched the opening ceremony. The live broadcasts in malls, however, proved unpopular amid the city’s latest surge of Covid-19 cases.
02:19
How Beijingers view Eileen Gu: Olympic medallist embraced by fans and over 23 brands in China
In Europe, where the events are aired on the Discovery channel, the total number of streaming viewers after only four days of competition had surpassed Pyeongchang 2018’s total viewership. Australians are also showing interest in the Games, as official broadcaster Seven Network reached 11.7 million viewers on Wednesday.
Christian Klaue, the IOC’s corporate communications and public affairs director, tweeted that the opening ceremony had “achieved the highest audience reach ever for an Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony – early estimates suggest could be as much as half a billion people”.
He went on to say that there had been “more broadcast hours than ever for a Winter Games edition, with record numbers on digital platforms”.
In the United States, meanwhile, there was a split between traditional broadcast figures and online audience numbers.