Most Watched Sports of Milan Olympics '26
- Zak Drapeau
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
by Zak Drapeau
Sportz Nation - 2/18/2026
The 2026 Winter Olympics are by far the most watched occurrence of the event in American viewership history, averaging 25.7-26.5 million viewers per day (Milano Cortina via olympics.com).
The 25th addition of the Winter Olympics have been the first to stream straight to Peacock which has attributed to the large spike in viewers so far. And with the marquee event of the Men's Ice Hockey tournament set to start today, viewership is expected to rise even more.
With this event seeing a rise in popularity in disciplines such as Curling and Skeleton but still dominated by Hockey and Snowboarding, I want to find out what the Most Watched Discipline of this year's event has been.
So let's go through the top contenders:
Figure Skating
With the second highest fan interest rate of 59% of a poll taken from Desert News, Figure Skating has been the leading candidate for most watched so far.
Ilia Malinin might be the most watched superstar these games have produced and his failure to secure a gold in spectacular fashion was the most watched and re-watched single moment of these games likely until the Men's Ice Hockey Gold Medal game.
Ice Hockey
Hockey is almost always in this conversation but with even more emphasis on the discipline for the 2026 games with the return of NHL Players for the first time since 2014.
With the qualifiers now over and the top-8 nations battling for the Gold, viewership will rise significantly over the next 5 days and the Woman's Gold medal game between USA and Canada happening tomorrow.
Curling
Here's one of the shockers of the 2026 games, Curling has been all the rage due to the amount of matchups and broadcast schedule on television.
A classic round robin-style tournament that will span the entire length of the 18-day Winter games, Curling's rise in viewership has mostly come with spiking interest from Americans. With Mixed doubles completed and the Men's Tournament set to start tomorrow, February 19th, this sport should finish in a spectacular way as well.
Snowboarding
In a survey done before the games started by reviews.org, Snowboarding was the highest discipline answered when asked what sport Americans were most likely to watch with 62%.
The discipline was completed today on the 18th, with China's Yu Siming earning Gold in Men's slopestyle and Japan's Mari Fukada earning Gold for the Women's. Japan would also earn Gold in Men's halfpipe, Women's Big-Air and Men's Big-Air as they ran away with the discipline's medal count this year with 4 Gold and 9 total.
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To circle back to the question of WHICH sport is the most watched... It depends on your time frame. At the beginning of the games, Figure Skating was the early favorite. From now until the ending ceremony it will be Men's Ice Hockey.
However, as a whole Snowboarding will have likely been watched by the most amount of people. One of the most celebrated disciplines as well as being the most popular in 3 major countries like the USA, Japan, China and Canada, Snowboarding still reigns king even if these games made it interesting.
Regardless of which sport is king... It's most important to remember how well these games as a whole have turned out. With Norway, host-country Italy and USA reigning in medal counts respectively, each nation has put on a terrific display of competitiveness and national pride, with streaming services making it easier than ever for billions of people to appreciate them like never before.
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Make sure to stay tuned as we continue coverage of the 2026 Milan Olympics.
-Z.D. (@DrapeauZak on Twitter)