This year’s Olympics digital platforms saw a spike in record-breaking traffic—double the number of users during Rio 2016. Fans have watched, followed, and engaged with new technologies and innovation.
According to the International Olympic Committee, more than 100 million unique users have visited the Olympic digital platforms or used the Tokyo 2020 app (Android and iOS).
“These games are expected to be the most digitally engaged games ever,” declares International Olympic Committee director of digital engagement and marketing Christopher Carroll.
“One of the key ingredients is that we are operating in full cooperation with Tokyo 2020: nine different languages to tell athlete stories and the global Olympic story, in collaboration with our Olympic Partners and Olympic Broadcasters,” Carroll adds.
Social media posts by @olympics on channels such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo have generated 3.7 billion engagements in 2021.
The Olympics social media accounts now have a combined total of 75 million followers.
Carroll says fans were interested by new sports such as skateboarding and surfing, and stories about athletes and coaches supporting and encouraging each other, even if they represent different teams.
“Athletes are united in their journey,” Carroll explains. “They’ve faced similar challenges, and here in Tokyo they are coming together. We are trying to bring unity to the world, by celebrating the emotions of the games to share a message of togetherness and solidarity.”
The Tokyo 2020 app is popular in Japan, USA, and India. TikTok recorded three billion views of videos relating to the #OlympicSpirit challenge, inviting people to share the Olympic Spirit.
The Tokyo 2020 app also recorded a strong interest in skateboarding, which attracted over 700,000 web and app users in two days. Interest was also strong from different age groups.
Digital and social engagement is strong in Australia, India, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Japan, the host country for the Olympics, contributed strong engagement due to its athletes winning medals.
Rayssa Leal, the 13-year-old Brazilian skateboarding silver medallist, was the most trending topic on Twitter, attracting 460,000 likes. The Intel drone show garnered more than 85% positive comments.
The traffic on the Olympics website and app skyrocketed to 17 times when it was announced before a few days before the start of Tokyo 2020 that Australia was chosen to hose the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
India doubled the number of its users. USA, on the other hand, has seen a 20% increase.
The International Olympics Committee says all figures are in addition to the audiences for the competition field of play content published exclusively by Rights Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) on their TV and social media channels.
Fans were encouraged to support for their favourite competitors via Olympics.com, @olympics social media, Tokyo 2020 digital and social media channels, and RHBs.
So far, 150 million cheers have been sent, from all countries of the world, supporting athletes from all 205 NOCs who are participating, across all sports.
“The athletes should not feel they are alone,” concludes Olympic Broadcasting Services CEO Yiannis Exarchos. “They are supported by hundreds of millions of people around the world."
