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The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially in the books and they delivered a historic showing for the United States.
Norway powered to the top of the medal table with a record haul of 18 gold medals and 41 total, while Team USA enjoyed its best Winter performance ever, finishing second with 33 medals, including a Games record 12 golds.
Norwegian cross-country star Johannes Høsflot Klæbo dominated headlines with a record six gold medals. On the American side, speed-skating phenom Jordan Stolz cemented his place as the most successful U.S. athlete of the Games, capturing gold in the 500 and 1000 meters, setting Olympic records in both, and adding silver in the 1500.
Meanwhile, Team USA’s men’s hockey team added one final exclamation point, defeating rival Canada in a dramatic overtime thriller to secure its first Olympic gold in 46 years.
And now, the impact of those moments has extended beyond the podium.
NBC announced Monday that its Milan-Cortina coverage averaged 23.5 million viewers across broadcast, Peacock, and NBCUniversal digital platforms, a 96% jump compared to the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
According to the network, that makes these the most-watched Winter Games in the United States since the Sochi 2014 Olympics.
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After two Olympics where ratings steadily dipped, hitting their lowest point in Beijing 2022, Milan-Cortina flipped the script and reminded the industry that live sports still bring audiences together at scale.
Beijing averaged roughly 12.0 million viewers across comparable windows, according to NBC’s release, meaning Milan-Cortina essentially doubled that baseline.
NBC’s press materials also highlighted major streaming milestones, including a record 16.7 billion minutes consumed across NBCUniversal platforms, led by Peacock, along with historically strong advertising revenue.
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For NBC, which holds U.S. Olympic media rights through 2036, the rebound validates its investment in production scale, cross-platform integration, and programming innovations like mid-day “Milan Prime” windows designed to capture American audiences despite the time difference.
More broadly, the ratings resurgence creates strategic momentum heading into the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the next Winter Games in the French Alps in 2030.