There were plenty of memorable moments during the Paris 2024 Olympics – all of them available to watch on Roku.
Whether you enjoyed the thrilling drama of an obscure sport, your favorite athlete winning in style or catching up on meme-able moments, the NBC Olympic Zone featured within our Sports experience made it simple to discover what to watch. With audience attention more fragmented than ever, Roku made it easier to stream the games and for advertisers to reach massive, captivated audiences at scale.
Below, we present Roku’s top takeaways from this year’s Olympics and how advertisers can apply these learnings to other sporting events.
Traditional linear TV households spent over 17 hours on average watching the games this year, almost twice as much time as they spent on the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. While linear TV reach grew 17% since the 2021 games, streaming reach on Roku increased an astonishing 100%. Streaming hours were up 168%.¹
All demographics on Roku streamed more Olympics this time around, but households with Gen Zers and people over 65 saw some of the strongest streaming adoption rates. Streaming viewership across all ethnicities was also up, with Black viewership increasing 119% since the 2021 games.²
Among audiences that watched the Tokyo Olympics on linear TV, only 44% returned to watch the 2021 games on linear this year. Meanwhile, two out of five linear TV viewers during Toyko opted to switch to streaming for the Paris games.³
The Roku POV: Sports audiences are migrating quickly from linear TV to streaming. For advertisers, platforms like Roku are becoming the place to reach a broad range of demographics.
In its streaming debut, the NBC Olympic Zone became a hub for all things related to the Paris games. Viewers could easily navigate to Peacock's comprehensive Paris 2024 Olympics coverage via a home screen marquee ad. There, fans could watch more than 5,000 hours of live events alongside replays and highlight reels without having to flip through channels or navigate through complex menus.
The NBC Olympic Zone experience allowed audiences to interact and find content with no barriers. Roku served as the front door to the Olympics, giving viewers a positive, immersive experience without feeling heavy-handed.
The Roku POV: The NBC Olympic Zone provided a unique opportunity for NBC to elevate its coverage of one of the most watched sporting events. Custom navigation not only provides utility for the viewer but also puts your brand front and center during key cultural moments.
The traditional Summer Olympic sports of swimming, gymnastics and track & field were the most popular of the Paris games. Each sport drew an audience of over 80 million linear TV viewers.⁴
Gymnastics got a boost thanks to the GOAT Simone Biles, who was the most searched-for athlete on the Roku platform. She had 53% more search queries than the next most-searched Olympic athlete, basketball legend LeBron James.⁵
But newer sports are also growing their fan bases. Surfing, which is in its second year as an Olympic sport, had a 58% increase since the 2021 Olympics in linear TV viewership – reaching about 46 million viewers.⁶
The most watched match? That would be the Gold Medal game between the U.S. and France's men's basketball teams on linear TV. The average Basketball viewer stayed dedicated, watching over 6.5 hours of games. That's twice as much time as they spent during the 2021 Olympics.⁷
The Roku POV: Star power and anticipated matchups are a surefire hit with audiences. Brands can capitalize on these moments by following the storylines and trends leading up to the event, and then advertising on these cultural touchstones.
Thanks to increased broadcast availability, women’s Olympic sports got more visibility than ever. And audiences were all in.
Women’s field hockey matches reached an estimated 10 million adults. Viewership of the women’s sport on linear TV has increased about 220% from 2021 to 2024. For comparison, men’s field hockey viewership only rose around 19% percent in the same time frame.⁸
U.S. women’s water polo also got a boost thanks to the social media buzz around Flavor Flav’s sponsorship of the team. Three times as many viewers, or 35 million adults, watched the Paris matches than tuned in to the event during Tokyo 2021.⁹
Other viewership winners included women’s soccer, which grew 78% to reach 30.7 million people, as well as women’s volleyball which increased 31% to reach 50.2 million people. Women’s basketball went up 43% to reach 41.9 million people. All three of these U.S. women’s teams also took home the gold.¹⁰
The Roku POV: Brands that advertise around women’s sports have an opportunity to benefit from the growing fandom around these teams and matches. With Roku’s wide range of sports offerings, there are plenty of opportunities to show support.
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¹⁻⁴ US Internal Roku Data, 2024
⁵ Internal Roku Search Data, 2024; 7/26-8/11
⁶⁻¹⁰ US Internal Roku Data, 2024