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How many people watch each of the following sports during the Olympics and after the Olympics: figure skating, curling, luge and bobsled?
Hello! Thanks for your question about viewership of Olympic sports during and after the Olympics. The short version is that each sport reaches several million people during the Olympics. A smaller number of viewers watch the sports outside the Olympics, but this number is also in the millions. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
I looked at marketing reports, fact sheets, and articles on the internet related to the 2014 Olympics since it is the most recent one for these events. Because there is no global total of viewers for the events, I estimated the numbers using United States viewership statistics. I took the percent of Americans who watched a given event and took that percent of the global viewership to get the estimated global viewership for that event.
OLYMPIC VIEWERSHIP
The 2014 Sochi Olympics captured the attention of 2.1 billion global viewers. Of this viewership, 151 million were Americans.
FIGURE SKATING DURING THE OLYMPICS
There is no total of global viewers of solely the figure skating event, only for the American, Japanese, and Italian viewership. A reasonable estimate, then, can be made by looking at what percent of Americans watched figure skating and applying that proportion to global Olympic viewership.
There were 151 million total American viewers of the Olympics. The average number of American viewers for figure skating events was 25,448,801. 16.85% of Americans watched figure skating. 16.85% of global viewers equals an estimated 353,850,000 global viewers of figure skating.
Data is available on the viewership in Japan and Italy. The men's figure skating event was the highest performing broadcast in Japan, reaching 8.8 million people. The peak of viewership in Italy was for the women's figure skating event, reaching 2.3 million people.
Figure skating was the third most talked about Olympic sport online, making up 10% of the messages online. Figure skating dominated the news, becoming the most popular event in online news headlines.
FIGURE SKATING AFTER THE OLYMPICS
The American viewership for figure skating remains fairly consistent during and after the Olympics. During Olympic years, 79% of fans follow figure skating. Not during Olympic years, 74% of fans follow figure skating. For information specific to the demographics of American figure skating fans, check out this source.
CURLING DURING THE OLYMPICS
5 million Americans watched curling during the Olympics, making it 3.31% of viewership. Taking this number globally, it's estimated 69,500,000 people watched curling.
Curling was the fourth most talked about Olympic sport online, making up 8.8% of the messages online.
CURLING NOT DURING THE OLYMPICS
LUGE DURING THE OLYMPICS
The average number of viewers in the United States for luge was 26,157,455, making it 17.32% of viewership. Taking this number globally, it's estimated 36,300,000 people watched luge.
8.2 million German viewers watched the men's luge event, making it the highest viewed Sochi event in Germany.
LUGE NOT DURING THE OLYMPICS
I could not find any data about luge viewership outside the Olympics.
BOBSLED DURING THE OLYMPICS
Around 65 million Americans watched the bobsled, making it 3.1% of viewership. Taking this number globally, it's estimated that 65,000,000 people watched bobsled.
BOBSLED NOT DURING THE OLYMPICS
The only data I could find on viewership is for the 2014 World Cup, which reached 497 million viewers.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the sports of figure skating, curling, luge, and bobsled are popular during and after the Olympics. These sports see high viewership and some see high engagement online.
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