YouTube reports significant viewership for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, with over 850 million unique viewers consuming Olympics-related content on the platform. 

The video-sharing giant collaborated with official broadcasting partners, including NBCUniversal, Eurosport, and Claro Sports, to deliver comprehensive event coverage.

“It was also clear that people loved watching the Olympics on YouTube from their connected TVs,” YouTube stated in a blog post.

Views, Minutes, Subscribers

During the Games, YouTube users watched over 40 billion minutes of Olympic content, equivalent to over 650 million hours. This includes material from the official Olympics YouTube channel and official broadcasters’ channels. 

The platform recorded over 12 billion views of Olympics-related videos. The official Olympics YouTube channel experienced significant growth, gaining over 1.1 million new subscribers during the event.

Connected TV viewing emerged as a significant trend, with over 18 billion minutes of Olympics content watched in living rooms, accounting for over 35% of total watch time.

YouTube reports that over 180 million unique viewers streamed Olympics content on connected TVs, generating 1.9 billion views in this setting alone.

Partnering with IOC, Creators

YouTube partnered with official broadcasters and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bring more than 30 popular YouTube creators to Paris. 

These creators, including Rick Azas from Eurosport and Liza Baez from Claro Sports, provided alternative perspectives on the Games.

The platform’s coverage spanned all 32 Olympic sports, offering thousands of hours of official content, highlights, and event replays.

YouTube became the first streaming platform to exceed 10% of total TV usage, reaching 10.4% in July and solidifying its position as the most popular streaming service.

Social Media Platforms During the Olympics

In June, NBCUniversal partnered with major social platforms to form the “Paris Creator Collective,” which comprised 27 influential creators. 

The multi-platform program aimed to engage younger audiences by allowing creators to share their perspectives and experiences from the Games through custom content.

NBCUniversal also partnered with Snapchat in July to launch augmented reality experiences for the Paris Games to engage viewers through personalized and interactive content.

Elon Musk’s X reported record engagement during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with 238 million posts generating 103 billion impressions over the two-week event.