Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Tracks 21.4 Million Viewers Across NBC, Peacock
February 7, 2026
The Feb. 6 opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics generated 21.4 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, up 34% from the 16 million viewers for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, according to data from Adobe Analytics.
The opening ceremony across four different locations — which featured Mariah Carey singing in Italian, “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore performing an exhausting dance routine, tenor Andrea Bocelli singing
Total opening ceremony streaming minutes topped 700 million minutes across all digital platform, up 250% from the 280 million minutes streamed at the opening ceremony at the Beijing Games.
“We are off to a strong start with Friday’s captivating Opening Ceremony highlighted by the historic cities, the scenic mountain areas, and the Parade of Athletes,” Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports, said in a statement.
“The opening ceremony audience exceeded our expectations, and we can’t wait for the next two weeks of competition.”
The Winter Games run through the closing ceremony on Feb. 22.
I’ve enjoyed the wall to wall coverage. Great job! My only suggestion is that Peacock acknowledges the scant snow on the mountains surrounding Cortina — “It did not look like this the last time the Winter Olympics came to Cortina.” And you also acknowledge the cause. “The large majority of climate scientists attribute this to the warming of the atmosphere due the burning of fossil fuels.”