Olympics Viewership Nearly Doubled From 2020 Games Despite Calls to Boycott Over Opening Ceremony

Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via AP

Calls to boycott the 2024 Olympics appear to have fallen on deaf ears as viewership nearly doubled from the 2020 games in Tokyo.

The Olympic opening ceremony was the subject of significant backlash in the media for a scene some conservatives online claimed mocked Christianity. In the scene, multiple characters — including some dressed in drag — stood in front of a long table. While critics of the scene drew parallels to Leonard da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper,” Olympic designer Thomas Jolly said it was actually a reference to the Greek god Dionysus.

That explanation, however, wasn’t good enough for some conservatives and the outrage persisted.

Many vowed to not watch the Olympic Games. Last week, NBCUniversal revealed that boycott — if it actually happened — was ineffective.

From the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony, NBCUniversal had a Total Audience Delivery of 30.6 million viewers. That marked an increase of 82% from the 2020 games in Tokyo.

Peacock also saw a significant increase in usage during the limits. More than 23.5 billion minutes of Olympics coverage was streamed, representing an increase of 40% “from all prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined.”

The day before the closing ceremony, the men’s basketball gold medal game averaged 19.5 million viewers and peaked at more than 22 million. It was the most-watched gold medal games since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The women’s game, despite the early tip-off at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast, averaged 7.8 million with a peak of 10.9 million.