Warner Bros. Discovery reported record-breaking streaming performance for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, with the company posting triple-digit growth across its HBO Max and Discovery+ platforms compared to the 2022 Beijing Games.
The return of the Winter Olympics to Europe, coupled with what the company describes as a highly innovative streaming experience, has led to significant increases in viewership and engagement across WBD’s services.
Total hours watched on streaming services increased by 103% compared to Beijing 2022, and the number of subscribers watching via HBO Max and Discovery+ tripled (up 234%). This milestone came quickly. The total number of subscribers streaming Milano-Cortina content exceeded the overall streaming viewership of Beijing 2022 within the first three days of the entire competition (6-8 February).
Social video views across Eurosport’s European account and TNT Sport’s UK and Ireland accounts exceeded 4 billion, an increase of 580% compared to Beijing 2022.
“The success we witnessed on day one made it a great Winter Olympics for Warner Bros. Discovery with strong streaming viewership and engagement, as well as very strong linear viewership,” said Andrew Georgiou, president and managing director of WBD Sports Europe.
A feature of this cycle was Olympic Multiview, a new service that allows streaming subscribers to watch up to four events simultaneously on one screen with audio commentary of their choice. Approximately one-third (32%) of users took advantage of this feature. Viewers can also set personalized watchlists, receive gold medal alerts, track live action via timeline markers, and choose from up to 21 commentary languages.
These platforms delivered all 246 live sessions during the 19-day competition, with 11 concurrent events at their peak and 116 medal competitions involving 2,900 athletes. HBO Max recorded triple-digit streaming growth in France, Germany and Italy, and Discovery+ in the UK.
“Watching the Olympics on HBO Max and Discovery+ resonated with viewers in the UK and Europe, with three times as many people choosing to stream the Olympics compared to Beijing 2022,” Georgiou said. “Viewers can now choose from all 116 live events and plan their own Olympics using innovative features like single-screen multi-viewing, significantly increasing the amount of time fans spend watching on our streaming service.”
Linear performance also remained strong, with WBD’s Eurosport (Europe) and TNT Sports (UK & Ireland) channels seeing a 3% increase in total viewers compared to Beijing 2022. This is a reversal from the broader decline in linear TV consumption seen over the same period. Total linear viewing time increased by 51% compared to the previous Winter Games. Eurosport’s linear country-level increases included France (+47% in hours watched), Germany (+50%) and Poland (+32%), while TNT Sport in the UK and Ireland saw a 60% increase in hours watched.
Georges added: “This Olympics has laid a very strong foundation for the Winter Olympics, which will be held in Los Angeles in 2028 and again in Europe in 2030 in the French Alps.”
