The Olympics need no introduction – they have been the biggest arena of sports and games for a long time. It is no wonder that the event has drawn large crowds of spectators over the years. This time, with the pandemic continuing to wreak havoc and barring fans from stadiums to maintain the restrictions, people have had to go online to watch their favorite athletes compete for the greatest prizes. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in a massive influx of downloads of Olympic-related apps like Peacock and the official Olympics app ever since the opening ceremony on July 23, according to a report by App Annie.
The report showed the immense popularity of the Olympics, which has garnered over 5,00,000 in-person spectators and an average of 27.5 million primetime viewers in the US. Peacock TV, NBC Universal’s ad-supported streaming service, has seen an astonishing amount of downloads with a rise of 60% during the first week of the Olympics, as has the official IOC 2020 Olympics app over the past two months, which saw the biggest rise on July 25 with no less than 3, 25, 000 daily downloads. The report added that all streaming apps which had rights to the Olympics witnessed a rise of 13 times in downloads during the first week of the Olympics.
Country and continent-wise, it is China which has bagged the first position with a rise in downloads of 2270%, with South Korea and India (with the SonyLIV platform) coming second and third respectively. In Europe, there is a rise of 1040% in downloads of the Eurosport app while downloads of BBC Sport in the UK rose by 100%. Russia is not holding back either, as downloads of Олимпиада Токио rose by 1305%. The host country of the Olympics this time, Japan, features on this list as well, as its NHKプラス app saw a rise of 510% in downloads to come to 11th place on the most downloaded apps from July 23 to July 25.
“The Olympics are a tentpole event that drives meaningful engagement with consumers around the world — and mobile is at the heart of engagement, this year more than ever,” said Lexi Sydow, head of marketing insights at App Annie.
These numbers are astounding as people continue to remain to be barred from watching their idols in the flesh, ranging from cricket and football to the Olympics. This has driven people to go online and watch, as is evident.
The opening ceremony of the Olympics itself was an event that attracted many eyes – streaming activity rose 279% when compared to the opening ceremony in 2018, and the NBC Sports App saw streaming activity on its app rise by 76% when compared with the 2018 opening ceremony and 72% compared to the same event in 2016.
