Between August 8 and August 24, 4.7 billion viewers — or 70% of the world’s population — tuned in to watch the Games, according to Nielsen.  In comparison, 3.9 billion watched the 2004 Athens Games, while 3.6 billion followed the 2000 Sydney Games on TV. 

Host nation China led the viewing with 94% of Chinese viewers tuning in to the Olympics TV coverage, Nielsen reported.  South Korea, though a much less populous nation, also recorded 94% audience reach.  Mexico followed closely with 93% of all viewers in that country following the Olympics on TV.

In the U.S., the Summer Games ranked as the most-viewed TV event ever, with a total audience of 211 million and an average daily audience of 27 million people.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Hollywood Reporter, Multichannel News, The Huffington Post, and on Bloomberg.

Nielsen’s estimates are based on television audience data collected from 38 key markets throughout the world, including host nation China, the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, Italy, and Australia.

The Asia-Pacific region had the highest audience reach, with more than five in 10 people watching the opening ceremony.  Europe and North America followed with 30% and 24% reach, respectively.

Within Asia-Pacific, China had the highest percentage of people tuning into the opening ceremony.  South Korea (44% of people), Greece (43% of people), and Australia — all former Summer Olympics host nations — also had high viewership percentages. 

Viewing levels were also impressive in the U.S., where an estimated that 65 million people watched the opening ceremony.

View the full press release.

Read Bloomberg’s and China Daily’s coverage of Nielsen’s findings.

American consumers are particularly likely to view Olympics content on their phones, a recent survey by Nielsen Mobile found. 

Consumers in the UK and Spain also showed strong interest in watching the Beijing Games and receiving Olympics results from their mobile phones, according to Nielsen Mobile.  Those in the UK said they plan to read Olympics-related Web articles and monitor the medal count via their phones, while Spanish consumers reported they will most likely check TV schedules and view photos from the Olympics via their mobile phones.

As the Beijing Games approach, Olympics content is also in demand online. 

In the U.S. alone, Internet users ran 3.3 million search queries containing the term “Olympic” in June — up significantly from approximately 2 million Olympic related online queries in April and May, according to Nielsen Online.