BBC Sport reveals record viewing figures for Winter Olympics

BBC Sport has revealed its coverage of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics received its largest streaming audience yet for a Winter Olympic Games. 

Its Winter Olympics coverage had 83 million streams and over 44 million total streamed hours online via BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app, with 26.3 million viewers tuning in to the TV coverage. 

In comparison, The Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022 saw 31.4 million streams and a TV audience of 26 million.

BBC Sport’s social coverage at the Winter Olympics also generated 235 million views across the Games. The tournament’s biggest viral moment came on TikTok, via a compilation of ski jumpers warming up before their event. The clip racked up more than 6 million views on TikTok, becoming the most-viewed individual BBC Sport social video of the Games. 

The BBC says the growth in digital audiences has offset the gradual shift away from traditional TV viewing and has expanded the Games’ footprint, making this “the most widely consumed Winter Olympic Games on the BBC”. 

During the Winter Olympics Games, BBC Sport recorded its highest-performing digital week in two years, with 12.23 million accounts consuming digital content across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.

It’s the biggest weekly digital account audience since the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. 

BBC Sport’s YouTube performance during the Winter Olympics also delivered record-breaking growth, with total views up 390% on the previous Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, reaching 8.8 million across the Games.

Overall watch time totalled 590,000 hours, more than quadruple the figure from the last Games, and viewers watching for an average of 5 minutes and 9 seconds per video.

The standout performer of the Games was Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson’s Spice Girls–inspired figure skating team event debut, which became the most-watched piece of Winter Olympics content on BBC Sport’s YouTube channel with 449k views.

Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale’s Team GB gold on snow delivered 8.3 million social views in total, with Charlotte’s final run earning more than 5.8 million views on TikTok alone.

Elsewhere, the moment Chris Hughes trained with Team GB’s Bobsleigh team and had his worried girlfriend JoJo Siwa begging for “proof of life” after his training run delivered 5.1 million views across the social media channels.

A BBC Sport explainer story breaking down the rules of Curling and why no disqualification followed the ‘double tap’ incident drew over 2 million page views to a single story.  

More stats from the BBC include 16.3 million unique visitors used the BBC Sport website and app to follow the latest news from Milan-Cortina across the Winter Olympic Games 2026. 

On TV, the Team GB men’s Curling team bringing home the Silver medal saw the biggest peak of the fortnight with 5.5 million tuning in on BBC1. 

The BBC’s TV coverage reached a total of 26.3 million. 

Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport says: “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.  

“Record audiences came to the BBC to experience our multi-platform coverage – whether that was a viral social media clip, an in-depth explainer on the website, a bespoke digital film for iPlayer, or watching the drama unfold live on TV. I’m hugely proud of the teams who worked tirelessly to deliver such an outstanding Games for existing and new audiences”.