Tokyo 2020

Tokyo 2020 smashes records for BBC Sport online viewing

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Tokyo 2020 may only just be over, but BBC Sport is already keen to tells us of its own record making and breaking

BBC Sport’s coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games saw a record-breaking 104 million requests to watch the action online throughout the duration of the competition, beating the Rio 2016 figure of 74.4 million.

In addition to the 24/7 live and on demand content available on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website, BBC One had more hours of coverage than ever before this year. In total, 36.4m people watched Tokyo 2020 on BBC TV, compared to 37.5 million who watched Beijing 2008 (in a similar time zone).

The men’s 100m final was the most watched event on TV with 5m viewers tuning in to watch on BBC One, followed closely by the women’s 100m final which saw 4.5m viewers. 3.6m watched Max Whitlock in the men’s pommel final, while 3.4m watched Bradley Sinden take silver in the 68kg taekwondo final. The most requested moments online were Lauren Williams in the 67kg taekwondo gold medal contest with 2.5m requests, and Charlotte Dujardin earning her fifth Olympic medal as Team GB secured bronze in the team dressage final with 2.4m requests.

There’s more in the BBC press release. We can’t help wondering how figures would have changed had Discovery not kept a certain amount of content fenced off from the BBC. It’s only three years until Paris 2024, and we’re already getting excited, and expect far different figures as UK viewers can watch in real time, not needing to catch-up (assuming the BBC has an equivalent amount of coverage).