Simone Biles & Team USA Women’s Gymnastics Gold Medal Lead Big Tuesday Olympics Audience For NBCU

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team led a big day for Team USA at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, which translated to a huge audience for NBCU platforms.

Tuesday saw a total audience delivery of 34.7M viewers across NBC, Peacock, and the company’s other digital platforms, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

That’s nearly double the 18.4M that tuned in for the opening Tuesday of the Tokyo Olympics — though that shouldn’t be a surprise, because by now it’s clear that interest is up across the board for this year’s Summer Games.

Simone Biles made a victorious comeback during the women’s gymnastics team final alongside Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Hezly Rivera.

The gymnasts brought home the gold medal, besting second place Italy by nearly six points. It was quite the feat for the team, and for NBCU, as 12.7M people tuned in across NBC and Peacock for the competition. That ranks among NBC’s most-watched Olympic weekday daytime events ever.

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. won three silver medals and one bronze in the pool, and the women’s rugby team fought their way to a dramatic bronze-medal victory.

Beginning with Friday’s Opening Ceremony, NBCU has averaged 34M viewers across combined live Paris Prime and U.S. primetime coverage, which is a 79% lift from Tokyo.

Spanish-language coverage is also seeing a boost this year, up 44% from the Tokyo Games through opening ceremonies to average 318,000 viewers across Telemundo and digital platforms.

The opening weekend was highlighted by soccer coverage, with the USA women’s victory over Germany posting 731,000 viewers on Telemundo.

On Saturday, France-Guinea men’s soccer match was the most-watched event of the day and the second most-watched Paris event to-date with 589,000 total viewers on Telemundo.

There’s still plenty to go as the U.S. women’s soccer team and Team USA basketball, among countless other athletes, continue to race toward gold. NBCU is sure to put up some more big numbers through the Closing Ceremony on August 11.