Since the opening ceremony on 23 July, Olympic-related apps have seen significant bumps in downloads from global sports fans, says mobile analyst App Annie, with those products from companies with rights to the Olympics seeing up to a 1305% bump in downloads during the first week of the Games.
The analyst noted that the Olympics have traditionally drawn large crowds of spectators. Its data showed that the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro drew over 500,000 in-person spectators and an average of 27.5 million primetime viewers in the US alone.
Yet for these delayed games with no fans allowed into stadiums due to local Covid regulations, App Annie expects usage on Olympic-related apps, like the official IOC Olympics app and Peacock – which has exclusive streaming rights in the US - to be on the rise. Over the last two months, the IOC 2020 Olympics app has seen a steady rise up the downloads rankings as the world gears up for the Games, with the biggest surge to date on 25 July 2021 at 325,000 daily downloads.
So far, App Annie says that the countries on the podium for Olympic app downloads are China in Gold medal position with a growth of 2270% in downloads, followed by South Korea in Silver and India in Bronze. In addition, since the opening ceremony, downloads of the Eurosport app in Europe increased 1040%, while in the UK, BBC Sport saw a 100% jump in new downloads. In Japan, where the Games are hosted, the NHKプラス app ranked #11 on the most downloaded apps from 23 – 25 July , 2021, up 79 ranks from the aggregate of three days prior.
“The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are games like no other. With Covid restrictions in place and fans barred from the stadiums, the need for mobile apps to stay connected with favourite athletes and watch competitions has skyrocketed,” said Lexi Sydow, head of market insights at App Annie commenting on the analysis. “Streaming apps have been a fan favourite with significant jumps in downloads — in the first few days, we’ve seen Peacock TV downloads surge 60% in the US, Eurosport grow 1040% in Europe and NHKプラス grow 510% in Japan. The Olympics are a tentpole event that drive meaningful engagement with consumers around the world — and mobile is at the heart of engagement, this year more than ever.”
Looking to future trends for the broadcasters, App Annie noted that with the increased engagement on the Olympic Games apps tied to a live event, they will need to focus on keeping users engaged on their platform and building brand loyalty to retain users long after the closing ceremony.
