Peacock Shines with Stellar Ratings for 2026 Winter Olympics
NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, Peacock, is experiencing unprecedented success during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina. This event has turned into the largest streaming performance for Peacock to date, with significant growth in viewership compared to previous Olympics.
Record-Setting Streaming Numbers for the Winter Olympics
As of Wednesday, Peacock and other NBCUniversal digital channels have recorded over 6.3 billion minutes of viewing time. This figure surpasses the combined total from the last two Winter Olympics in 2018 and 2022, even though Peacock was not operational during the 2018 games. Streaming was facilitated through NBC apps back then.
Viewership is showing an impressive increase of over 60% from the entire 2022 Olympics. With more than a week remaining in this year’s Olympic event, these numbers are expected to rise. Throughout the competition, Peacock has offered dedicated live streams for every event, supplemented by the Gold Zone show, which provides multiperspective coverage of live sports.
Viewer Engagement Across NBCUniversal Platforms
The overall viewership for NBCUniversal’s Olympic programming has reached 25.7 million, nearly double the 12.8 million average observed during the same period in 2022. This surge reflects the platform’s expanded coverage, which has significantly contributed to Winter Olympics viewing trends compared to four years ago.
Impressive Super Bowl Viewership
In addition to Olympic coverage, the recent Super Bowl also drew record numbers. Nielsen reported an average of 124.93 million viewers, making it the second-largest audience in U.S. history. Of this number, approximately 121.63 million viewers were attributed to NBC and Peacock, while Telemundo accounted for the remaining 3.3 million viewers.
Although a detailed breakdown between NBC and Peacock is not available, it is estimated that Peacock’s viewer count may have reached around 10 million. During the NFL regular season, Peacock contributed around 10.6% of the total audience for Sunday Night Football.
Subscriber Growth and Financial Context
Peacock recently grew its subscriber base in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, it also faced a larger loss compared to the same period in 2024, partially due to the costs associated with its share of NBCUniversal’s NBA rights and the NFL postseason game exclusive to streaming.
Unlike the more expensive NFL and NBA deals, the current contract for the Olympics, signed in 2014, covers the 2022-2032 games for $7.75 billion. An extension for the 2034 and 2036 Olympics was secured for an additional $3 billion, averaging about $1.34 billion for each of the events in that period.
As for Peacock, its first exclusive streaming playoff game had a price tag of $110 million, indicating the growing importance of streaming in sports broadcasting.
