BBC Sport says its coverage of the Winter Olympic Games 2026 delivered the largest overall audience consumption in its history, driven by record streaming and strong social engagement.
Across the Games, there were 83 million streams and more than 44 million hours viewed online via BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app. Television coverage reached 26.3 million viewers.
The figures mark a significant uplift on Beijing 2022, which delivered 31.4 million streams and a TV audience of 26 million. While linear viewing reflected broader industry trends, the BBC said digital growth more than offset the shift away from traditional TV, making this the most widely consumed Winter Olympic Games on the BBC.
Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport said: “From unforgettable human moments to technical sporting insight, BBC Sport didn’t just cover this year’s Winter Olympic Games, it delivered conversation and insight around them that got audiences talking and engaging more than ever.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has also today released its Winter Olympic figures, but these are not directly comparable with those from the BBC.
During the event, BBC Sport recorded its highest-performing digital week for individual accounts in 2 years, with 12.23 million accounts consuming content across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds, the BBC Sport website and app. It was the biggest weekly digital account audience since the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
On social platforms, coverage generated 235 million views across the Games. YouTube views rose 390% compared with Beijing 2022, reaching 8.8 million, with total watch time of 590,000 hours. Average viewing time per video was 5 minutes 9 seconds.
The most-watched Winter Olympics video on BBC Sport’s YouTube channel was Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson’s Spice Girls-inspired figure skating team event debut, which attracted 449,000 views.
TikTok delivered the biggest viral moment, with a compilation of ski jumpers warming up surpassing 6 million views. Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale’s Team GB gold generated 8.3 million social views in total, including 5.8 million views on TikTok for Bankes’ final run. A clip featuring Chris Hughes training with Team GB’s bobsleigh team generated 5.1 million views across social platforms.
The BBC Sport website also saw strong traffic around explanatory journalism, with a curling rules explainer on the Marc Kennedy and Oskar Eriksson ‘double tap’ incident drawing more than 2 million page views. Overall, 16.3 million unique visitors used the BBC Sport website and app during the Games.
On television, the Team GB men’s curling silver medal final against Canada delivered the biggest peak audience of the fortnight, with 5.5 million viewers on BBC One. Total TV reach across the Games was 26.3 million.
The Winter Olympics was also the most viewed brand for under-16s during the final week of the Games, underlining its cross-generational appeal.
