SportsOlympicsCanada

People streamed the Winter Olympics in Canada way more than ever before

Preston Hodgkinson
Preston Hodgkinson
|
Feb 24 2026, 10:55 pm
People streamed the Winter Olympics in Canada way more than ever before
Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters via Imagn Images

Streaming numbers hit new highs for Canadians during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.

The CBC and Radio-Canada announced that a total of 30.5 million Canadians watched the Olympics across its English and French networks, as well as broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet, and RDS.

However, it was the streaming numbers that really stood out in the viewership statistics.

Canadians swarmed to CBC’s digital platforms, with a massive total of 89 million streams across CBC Gem, ICI.TOU.TV, the CBC News App, Radio-Canada Info app, and CBC/Radio-Canada Olympic websites. That is more than triple the 29 million streams consumed by Canadians during the Beijing 2022 Games.

In total, a whopping 42 million hours of Olympic content were streamed across Canada during the Milano-Cortina Games, as compared to the 7.8 million hours in 2022. CBC reported that the time spent streaming during the 2026 Olympics increased by 632 per cent compared to 2022.

The shorter time difference between Canada and Italy probably helped matters, compared to Beijing. COVID-19 also didn’t impact the Olympics in 2026 as it did four years ago.

Regardless of the reason, it’s become clear that streaming has become a major way in which Canadians are consuming Olympic content.

Most-watched 2026 Olympic moments

Hockey dominated the Olympic ratings, as Canadians were eager to see the return of NHL players for the first time in over a decade. Several moments during Canada’s run to the silver medal in both men’s and women’s hockey ranked among the most-watched in Italy.

These numbers are based on TV broadcasts shown on CBC, Sportsnet, and TSN:

  1. USA scores in OT to defeat Canada in men’s gold medal game – 8.7 million viewers
  2. Final minute of Canada-Finland men’s semi-final – 5.1 million viewers
  3. Canada nets OT goal to defeat Czechia in men’s quarter-final – 4.4 million viewers
  4. Replay of fight in Canada-France men’s prelim game – 4.23 million viewers
  5. Final minutes of Canada-USA women’s gold medal game – 4.22 million viewers

There were a few non-hockey moments that captured the attention of Canadian viewers as well:

  1. Canada’s Opening Ceremony procession – 3.5 million viewers 
  2. Canada captures gold medal over Great Britain in men’s curling – 3.1 million viewers

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