The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off with an opening ceremony on Friday that averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games kicked off to a solid ratings start with its opening ceremony, seeing a 34% uptick from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The opening ceremony, which kicked off at 11 a.

NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Milan Cortina Olympics’ flashy opening ceremony averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, a jump of 34% from the opening for the 2022 winter games in Beijing, per preliminary data from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

And NBC will likely get big numbers again on Sunday as the network airs both Super Bowl LX and its Olympics coverage.

Saturday's cross-platform telecasts turn in the largest audience for the winter games since 2014.