30.5 million Canadians watched Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026

CBC has announced that 30.5 million Canadians watched the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina this month.

The network, which has been Canada’s official Olympics broadcaster for many years now, says this audience tuned in through its English and French television networks and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet and RDS. Additionally, CBC notes that its Olympics coverage surpassed 89 million streams on CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV, the CBC News and Radio-Canada Info apps, and dedicated CBC and Radio-Canada websites. Notably, this is more than triple the digital audience that tuned into CBC’s Beijing 2022 streams.

CBC also noted the top 10 most-watched moments from Milano Cortina. Naturally, almost all of them are hockey-related, led by 8.7 million people tuning into Team USA’s Jack Hughes’ winning overtime goal against Team Canada in the men’s hockey final. See below for the full top 10:

1. 8.7 million viewers watched Jack Hughes score the final goal in overtime, winning Team U.S.A. the gold medal in men’s hockey over Team Canada. (Day 16 — Sunday, February 22 at 10:52 a.m. ET).
2. 5.1 million viewers watched the final minute of the men’s semi-final hockey game between Canada and Finland. (Day 14 — Friday, February 20 at 1:11 p.m. ET).
3. 4.4 million viewers watched Canada’s final goal in overtime against Czechia to win the men’s hockey quarterfinal. (Day 12 – Wednesday, February 18 at 1:12 p.m. ET).
4. 4.23 million viewers watched a replay of the fight in the third period of the Canada/France men’s hockey game. (Day 9 – Sunday, February 15 at 12:56 p.m. ET).
5. 4.22 million viewers watched the final minutes of the women’s hockey gold medal game between Canada and the USA. (Day 13 – Thursday, February 19 at 3:52 p.m. ET).
6. 3.5 million viewers watched the procession of Canadian athletes enter the stadium during the Opening Ceremony. (Day 0 – Friday, February 6 at 2:56 p.m. ET).
7. 3.2 million viewers watched the Canada vs. Switzerland women’s hockey game. (Day 10 – Monday, February 16 at 5:23 p.m. ET).
8. 3.1 million viewers watched Canada win the gold medal in men’s curling over Great Britain. (Day 15 – Saturday, February 21 at 3:49 p.m. ET).
9. 3 million viewers watched the third quarter of the Canada vs. Switzerland women’s hockey game. (Day 1 – Saturday, February 7 at 5:09 p.m. ET).
10. 2.6 million viewers watched the Canada vs. Czechia men’s hockey game. (Day 6 – Thursday, February 12 at 12:42 p.m. ET).

In total, Team Canada won 21 medals at Milano Cortina, placing 11th overall in the rankings.

It should be noted that CBC renewed its deal with the IOC until 2032, so that will include 2028’s Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, 2030’s Winter Olympics in the French Alps and 2032’s Summer Olympics in Brisbane.

Image credit: Canadian Olympic Committee