NBCUniversal’s Presentation of Milan Cortina Olympics Dominates Media Landscape & Delivers Largest Winter Games Audience Since 2014
More than 215 Million Americans Have Watched NBCUniversal’s Presentation of “Legendary February,” Which Delivered for NBC Stations and Peacock
February 24, 2026
Last night’s Closing Ceremony on NBC and Peacock concluded NBCUniversal’s presentation of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics – highlighted by more than 3,200 hours of coverage, 116 events and a star-studded performance by Team USA, which won its most-ever Winter Games gold medals (12) and ranked second in the overall medal count with 33, as NBCUniversal delivered the most-watched Winter Games since 2014.
Americans were highly engaged all the way through the final medal event, which delivered Team USA’s record 12th gold medal in Sunday’s thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the men’s hockey gold medal game.
Sunday’s Closing Ceremony provided a spectacular culmination as more than 215 million Americans (215.6 million through Feb. 17) tuned in across NBCUniversal’s platforms for Legendary February, headlined by Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the NBA All-Star-Game, and the Feb. 1 debut of Sunday Night Basketball on February, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel reach metrics.
NBCU Legendary February Milestones
- Milan Cortina Winter Olympics – most-watched Winter Games since 2014
- Super Bowl LX – most-watched show in NBC’s 100-year history; second-most watched show of all-time (with largest peak audience of any show in U.S. history); most watched Super Bowl in Spanish language history on Telemundo
- NBA All-Star Game – most-watched since 2011
- NBC Sports has the most-watched football, basketball and hockey game of this TV season, all coming within Legendary February
- Since Feb. 1, NBC-owned and affiliated stations dominated broadcast television, topping primetime local market ratings in all 56 metered markets
- Peacock achieved its biggest month ever
Milan Cortina Olympics Daily Viewership
Beginning with the primetime show on the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., immediately after calling his first Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 8, NBCU’s lead Olympics host Mike Tirico anchored more than 70 hours across two primetime presentations – the latter portion of live Milan Prime coverage from 2-5 p.m. ET and the traditional U.S. primetime (Primetime in Milan) at 8 p.m. ET/PT – as NBCU featured the best events live while adding context and special elements for the large evening audience.
Tirico’s closing comments from the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena following the gold medal men’s hockey game have been viewed more than six million times across NBC Sports’ social platforms.
From the most-watched Opening Ceremony in 12 years through last night’s Closing Ceremony, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics averaged 23.5 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal Digital Platforms and Versant’s CNBC and USA Network across the combined live afternoon Milan Prime window (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) time periods. Milan Cortina viewership is the highest for a Winter Games since Sochi 2014 and up 96% from the 2022 Beijing Olympics (12.0 million).
Viewership is based on official Nielsen Big Data + Panel viewership (through Thursday 2/19) and preliminary data from Nielsen (2/20-22), and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Final data will be available later this week.
In addition:
- All 15 full competition days (Sat., Feb. 7 through Sat., Feb. 21) topped 20 million viewers
- Over the full Games, Milan Prime (live U.S. daytime) and Primetime in Milan (U.S. primetime) coverage posted a daily streaming TAD of 3.3 million viewers across Peacock and NBCU Digital platforms.
“Must See” NBC Dominates
As the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics concluded with last night’s Closing Ceremony, the NBC Broadcast Network extended its streak to 143 consecutive Olympics nights as primetime’s No. 1 show – dating to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Throughout Legendary February, NBC-owned and affiliated stations have dominated broadcast television, topping primetime local market ratings in all 56 metered markets.
Milwaukee led all markets in local ratings during the Milan Cortina Olympics. A chart of the Top 20 markets is at bottom.
Peacock Achieves Its Best Month Ever
Led by Peacock, a Winter Games record 16.7 billion minutes of Milan Cortina Olympics coverage were streamed across NBCUniversal digital platforms – more than double all prior Winter Olympics combined (6.9 billion minutes). Peacock streamed more than 850 live events over a 17-day period.
Peacock also served as the live streaming home for Super Bowl LX, the NBA All-Star Game and the debut of Sunday Night Basketball.
The post-Super Bowl premiere of “The ’Burbs” was the highest Day 1 Peacock original debut ever and has already generated nearly 1 billion viewing minutes on platform since its Feb. 8 launch.
In addition, four of the top 10 Peacock usage days all-time and seven of Peacock’s 10 largest reach days of all-time happened during the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Entertainment consumption hours on Peacock were up 12% in the week following the start of the Olympics (seven-day period beginning 2/5) compared to the weekly average since Love Island S7.
Peacock titles seeing an audience lift included Ponies, The Traitors, All Her Fault, The Copenhagen Test, Bel-Air and Twisted Metal.
The two days following the Super Bowl had the most entertainment streaming for a Monday and Tuesday since February 2025.
Team USA Strikes Double Hockey Gold
Three days apart, United States Women’s and Men’s Hockey Teams defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime to win Olympic gold medals.
- On Thursday, the USA-Canada game was the most-watched women’s hockey game on record, averaging 5.3 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock. The audience peaked at 7.7 million viewers in overtime (3:45-4 p.m. ET).
- In Sunday’s final medal event of the Milan Cortina Olympics, Team USA won its first gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980 in Lake Placid. Viewership figures for NBC Sports’ presentation of the game will be available on Tuesday.
USA Network Ranks as Cable’s #1 Sports and Entertainment Network
Featuring live coverage of every Winter Games sport, USA Network was the top destination for sports and entertainment programming on cable from the first day of competition on USA Network on Feb. 5 through Feb. 17 (latest data available in Nielsen NPower).
- USA Network has delivered an average of 1.7 million primetime viewers from Feb. 5-17 – topping all sports and entertainment cable networks.
- USA Network has delivered an average of 1.3 million Total Day viewers from Feb. 5-17 – topping all sports and entertainment cable networks.
- USA Network delivered an average of 1.64 million Total Day viewers across consecutive weekends (Feb. 7-8 and Feb. 14-15) – the best average viewership across successive weekends since December 2014.
Content Creation, Viral Moments, and More Boost NBC Sports Social Media Platforms to New Winter Games Heights
Milan Cortina Olympics content registered 4.28 billion impressions across NBC Sports social channels – a 437% increase vs. the Beijing Olympics and 231% above the PyeongChang Olympics.
In addition, NBC Sports social channels:
- Delivered a 434% increase in social video viewership over the Beijing Olympics and more than 9X over PyeongChang
- Added 1.4 million new followers to the full portfolio of accounts/channels
- Scored 2X social engagement for On Her Turf over the Beijing Olympics, speaking to the continued power and growth of women’s sports
Source: Sprout Social, Metricool and Comscore for the following accounts across multiple platforms: NBC Olympics, NBC Sports, On Her Turf
NBC News Viewership Increases During Olympics
The Milan Cortina Olympics powered ratings and engagement wins across NBC News, driving audience growth from broadcast to digital to social.
- NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas – which was on-location in Milan during the first week of the Olympics – ranked #1 in the key Adult 25-54 demo and TODAY ranked #1 across the board during Week 1 of the Milan Cortina Olympics.
- NBCNews.com and TODAY Digital coverage of the Milan Cortina Olympics is up 24% vs. the Beijing Olympics.
- Social video views across NBC News and TODAY Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube accounts are up 1,087% vs. Beijing
NBCU Delivers Strongest Advertising Revenue in Winter Games History and Highest Total Advertising Revenue for a Super Bowl
Fueled by exceptional advertiser demand and unparalleled reach, NBCUniversal’s Legendary February set historic advertising records with:
- The highest Olympic and Paralympic advertising revenue for Winter Games in company history
- The highest :30 second ad unit rate for Super Bowl ever
- The highest total ad revenue in Super Bowl history, besting last year’s cumulative figures
- Triple the digital ad revenue for Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics over 2022 Beijing Olympics, setting Winter Games records
Top 20 Local Markets – Milan Cortina Olympics
Milan Prime (live 2-5 p.m. ET) + Primetime in Milan (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) – through 2/20
| Rank | Market | Rating/Share |
| 1 | Milwaukee | 13.7/49 |
| 2 | Minneapolis | 13.5/53 |
| 3 | Fort Myers | 13.1/42 |
| 4 | Pittsburgh | 12.7/42 |
| 5 | Dayton | 11.6/48 |
| 6 | St. Louis | 11.5/40 |
| T7 | West Palm Beach | 11.0/38 |
| T7 | Buffalo | 11.0/35 |
| T9 | Cincinnati | 10.4/39 |
| T9 | Cleveland | 10.4/41 |
| T9 | Oklahoma City | 10.4/42 |
| 12 | Salt Lake City | 10.0/54 |
| 13 | Denver | 9.9/52 |
| 14 | Kansas City | 9.8/40 |
| 15 | Detroit | 9.7/37 |
| 16 | Tulsa | 9.6/32 |
| 17 | Providence | 9.1/34 |
| T18 | Richmond | 9.0/31 |
| T18 | Knoxville | 9.0/31 |
| T20 | Philadelphia | 8.8/34 |
| T20 | Louisville | 8.8/30 |
Source: Nielsen
NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2036, which are scheduled for Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028), French Alps (2030), Brisbane (2032), Utah (2034), and the 2036 Summer Games. Click here for more information on how to watch the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
