Peacock’s live Winter Olympic run turned into a headline-making streaming surge. NBCUniversal’s Milan-Cortina coverage drew a combined TV + streaming audience in the tens of millions, and Peacock led the way on digital, setting a new high for non-NFL streamed viewership during the Games.
That gold-medal men’s hockey thriller between Team USA and Canada produced NBC Sports’ biggest streaming audience outside the NFL. The action on the ice had an average streaming audience of 3.7 million, led by Peacock. NBCU’s combined audience for the USA-Canada men’s gold-medal hockey game averaged 20.7 million viewers and peaked at 26.0 million during the game-winning goal.
“As the final medal event, the gold-medal hockey game was a fitting crescendo to a spectacular 17 days of Milan Cortina Winter Olympic competition that we were so honored to present,” said NBC Sports president Rick Cordella.
For the Winter Games, NBCUniversal leaned into the streaming experience with new fan-forward features, including bench/bench-cam and coach cam. Rinkside Live and Courtside Live were explicitly built to make those extended minutes more engaging. Those features paid off as Peacock’s audience wasn’t just big for one game. During “Legendary February” (Super Bowl, Milan-Cortina Olympics, NBA All-Star), Peacock streamed 6.3 billion minutes of Olympic content, topping the previous two Winter Games combined.
“We applaud all the athletes, organizers, and our gracious hosts, and thank our passionate Team NBC colleagues who worked tirelessly to bring these Winter Games, Super Bowl LX, and the NBA All-Star Game to more than 215 million Americans in our ‘Legendary February,’” said Cordella.
The success of Milan-Cortina showed that streaming isn’t just a fringe outlet for live sports anymore. Peacock converted massive linear moments into billions of streamed minutes and a record for non-NFL streaming audiences. The results are proof that the hybrid broadcast + streaming model is the future for premium live events for maximum access and the best viewing experience.