United States guard LeBron James (6) celebrates with the gold medal after the sport in opposition to France within the males’s basketball gold medal recreation throughout the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer time Video games at Accor Enviornment.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports activities
The US’ prime basketball stars gained gold over France Saturday on the 2024 Paris Olympics, fascinating an viewers rivaling one of many notorious “dream groups” of the Nineteen Nineties.
A median of 19.6 million viewers tuned in to observe Stephen Curry and LeBron James lead the U.S. to a 98-87 victory over the host nation. It is the highest-rated gold-medal recreation since 1996 when Corridor of Famer Charles Barkley led the third “Dream Crew” to a gold medal win over Yugoslavia in Atlanta.
HUGE rankings for NBC and Peacock for @TeamUSA‘s 98-87 win over France within the gold medal recreation of males’s basketball on August 10, 2024.#Parigi2024 #Olympics @StephenCurry30 @NBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/yBX4nyn2vi
— Douglas Pucci (@SonOfTheBronx) August 11, 2024
Earlier than Saturday, the highest-rated gold-medal recreation after 1996 passed off in 2000, when the U.S. additionally defeated France, drawing 16.3 million viewers, per Jon Lewis of Sports activities Media Watch. Moreover, Lewis identified that, at its peak (22.7 million), Saturday’s contest was the most-watched basketball recreation at any stage because the 2019 NCCA males’s basketball nationwide championship (Virginia vs. Texas Tech), which gained 19.6 million viewers.
The strong numbers aren’t a shock, as this pattern has been obvious all through the Paris video games, whatever the competitors.
The U.S. girls’s gymnastics crew gained all-around gold to an enormous viewers of 12.7 million, topping several major sporting events, together with each recreation of the 2023-24 NBA Finals and the opening spherical of this yr’s NFL Draft. Likewise, the U.S. girls’s nationwide soccer crew’s first gold medal victory in 12 years, a 1-0 win over Brazil, was the most-watched because the 2004 Athens video games (9 million) regardless of being broadcast at 11 a.m. Saturday within the States.
Likewise, NBC, Peacock and its platforms surpassed 30 million viewers throughout Saturday’s Olympic protection, with an total common of 31.3 million all through the video games.
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