The U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials drew an average of 3.4 million primetime viewers on NBC and Peacock, a 26% increase from 2021, NBC is reporting.
That is a slight uptick even from the early numbers the television rights holder reported early in the meet. It is also an increase from the 2.7 million reported for the 2021 Trials.
While daily numbers were not available to compare on a granular level to 2021, historical patterns show that the numbers likely tapered off later in the meet then hit their peak on the final day of competition, which has limited swimming events but includes the announcement of the Olympic Team.
NBC also reports an average of 2.3 million viewers for the Olympic Diving Trials that ran concurrently in Knoxville which is an 18% increase from 2021.
Other Data from NBC:
- The Olympic Trials have delivered more than 100 million impressions on NBC Sports’ YouTube page, with Richardson’s victory in the 100 meters the most-watched clip with approximately 1.5 million views.
- Fans are engaging with NBC Olympics content more than twice as much as the 2021 Olympic Trials (up 107%), with more than 3.6 million interactions across all social media platforms.
- Gretchen Walsh’s World Record in the 100 fly semi-finals is the most-viewed swimming race video on the NBC Sports channel with 134,000 views, followed by Simone Manuel’s 100 free heat with 122,000 views.
- The collective “US Olympic Trials” had a 2.08% share last week, leading all programming throughout the week.
beat out Dr Who… ;-/
is it wrong to feel like swimming should average 137,284% more viewers than diving?
As a new Peacock subscriber, you’re welcome.
I heard Track and field got 5 million one night?
Seems reasonable based on what swimming averaged. Track generally gets higher ratings than swimming.
Do you know the comparable marketing spend for trials between the two sports and viewership?
Marketing spend – no
Viewership it depends on what you’re comparing. Track meets tend to get big audiences way more often. Like track NCAAs way out pull swimming NCAAs. For trials, I think track is a little higher but not overwhelmingly so.
With the split track schedule it’s not a perfect comparison anymore though.
Yeah last Sunday evening
Track is on TV more than swimming since they have the Diamond League, the various US meets (LA Grand Prix, NY Grand Prix, Bermuda, Grenada, Penn Relays, Drake Relays, etc.), and the various other international meets. Swimming goes through a massive lull from the summer until the conference meets (which are often shoved onto the ACC or SEC Networks at poor times) and then the NCAA meet. The various TYR meets are on TV, but those are often abridged and on at poor times.
Swimming really needs to get dual meets on TV and make them like the UVA-Texas meet last year. The mid-season invitationals also need to be televised. If swimming had a TV presence that wasn’t just March… Read more »
I think it’s worth acknowledging that in-season track meets are way more likely to produce top-class performances than in-season swim meets, where the most likely outcome is “everyone scratches Sunday night and goes home early”.
It definitely is worth noting that.
I was a distance runner (not anywhere close to that level), and while you aren’t likely to get a top-class performance when you’re in the heavy training phase (80+ miles per week), it still is more likely than in swimming (I was a swimmer, too). In my experience, it was easier to run fast when you were in a hard training block than to swim fast in a hard training block.
Track meets are often faster (except when trying to start the 100s) and people can relate more to running than to butterfly.