The Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony kicked off the summer games with a ratings bang.
The ceremony, which aired live from the Seine in Paris, brought in 28.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen data and NBCUniversal internal viewing figures. That’s up 60% from the 17.9 million viewers tuning in for last summer Olympics’ opening ceremony during the Tokyo Games in 2021.
“Last night’s Opening Ceremony, one of the most ambitious and complex in Olympic history, was a spectacle for those in attendance in Paris, delivered a huge audience across our NBCU platforms, and set records for Peacock,” said NBC Sports President Rick Cordella. “Thanks to the tireless effort of our production and engineering teams, and extensive promotion, we are off to a strong start that is in line with the expectations of our NBC stations, and distribution and advertising partners.” We are in great position as we look forward to the next two weeks of competition.”
Viewership for the opening ceremony rebounded to its average pre-pandemic numbers. The 2016 Rio Olympics’ opening ceremony brought in 26.5 million viewers, while the pre-pandemic openers for the winter games scored even higher with 28.3 million viewers for the PyeongChang games in 2018 and 31.9 million viewers for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
The 2024 Olympics was already off to a strong start ratings-wise, with the Olympic trials reaching their biggest audience since 2016 with an average viewership of 7.6 million across NBC and Peacock thanks to Simone Biles’ Olympic comeback.
Beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, the opening ceremony featured highly rumored performances from Lady Gaga, who kicked off the Parisian celebration with a rendition of “Mon Truc En Plumes (My Life in Feathers),” and Céline Dion, who closed out the show with “L’Hymne à l’amour,” a 1950 standard by the late French icon Édith Piaf. Other performers included Aya Nakamura, Gojira and Rim’K.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will run through Sunday, Aug. 11.
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