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Since the Tokyo Olympics took place in the summer of 2021, the next big sporting event to look forward to is the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Beginning on February 4th, viewers from all around the world can tune in to watch their most-loved athletes compete in alpine skiing, figure skating, bobsleigh, and other sports performed on and off the ice.
According to our publisher partners, lots of people are interested in the Olympics — some more than others. Even though we don’t know who will win gold, silver, and bronze medals, we are able to make predictions about which sports will be the most-searched by readers on the open web, and which countries you can expect to be glued to their television screens and internet browsers.
Ahead, learn more about the Beijing Olympics based on our global publisher network’s pageview data, as pulled from October 27th, 2021 (exactly 100 days out from the start of the Olympic games) until December 28th, 2021.
Top Six Most-Engaged Countries by Pageviews
| Country | Pageviews |
| United States | 239,369,200 |
| United Kingdom | 71,226,800 |
| Germany | 70,402,800 |
| India | 31,193,000 |
| France | 28,488,200 |
| Australia | 25,540,000 |
The United States is in the lead for most pageviews on our network for the term “Olympics.” With over 200 million searches from American users, they far outperform any other country.
The United Kingdom and Germany are pretty much tied for second place with about 70 million views. India, France, and Australia trail close behind one another.
All of these countries have big populations and are competing in the 2022 games. So, there’s no surprise that they’ve ranked in the top six. However, because Beijing (the host) is based in China and has triple the population of the U.S., it’s surprising that China didn’t rank higher, with only 326,000 pageviews.
Top Six Least-Engaged Countries by Pageviews
| Country | Pageviews |
| Christmas Island | 400 |
| Mayotte | 400 |
| Tokelau | 400 |
| Kiribati | 200 |
| Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 200 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 200 |
Out of 237 countries and islands, people from Christmas Island, Mayotte, Tokelau, Kiribati, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Equatorial Guinea all viewed articles mentioning the word “Olympics” the least amount of times. We can assume this is attributed to the fact that none of these places compete in the Winter Olympic games and have smaller populations. Because these territories consist of fewer people, there are fewer viewers to search for “Olympics.”
Top Six Most-Searched Winter Olympic Sports
| Sport Type | Pageviews |
| Ice Hockey | 11,069,200 |
| Figure Skating | 3,018,400 |
| Cross-country Skiing | 2,479,400 |
| Curling | 1,78,3000 |
| Alpine Skiing | 1,377,600 |
| Snowboarding | 1,300,200 |
The sport with the most pageviews goes to…. drum roll, please…. ice hockey! With over 11 million views, it wins as the most searched sport by a landslide. Figure skating, which is the oldest sport at the winter games, comes in second with about 3 million views. Still, ice skating is no match for the sport loved by Canadians and the world alike.
“With its speed and its frequent physical contact, ice hockey has become one of the most popular of international sports. The game is an Olympic sport, and worldwide there are more than a million registered players performing regularly in leagues,” according to Brittanica.
Cross-country skiing, curling, alpine skiing and snowboarding also made the top six list. These sports are definitely more widely known and popular than the sport types that succeed them in our pageviews data.
Top Six Least-Searched Winter Olympic Sports
| Sport Type | Pageviews |
| Freestyle Skiing | 639,000 |
| Bobsleigh | 160,000 |
| Luge | 98,000 |
| Short Track Speed Skating | 81,800 |
| Nordic Combined | 43,400 |
| Skeleton | 29,600 |
Out of 16 different winter Olympic sports, short track speed skating, nordic combined, and skeleton all have under 90,000 views. Some people or countries seem to find these sports boring to watch compared to others. For example, people from the Netherlands love speed skating, which dates back to the 1968 Olympics. Other countries find it hard to understand how people can enjoy watching Olympians skate around in circles.
Sports are definitely cultural and depend on the history behind them.
Top Keywords
| Entity | Pageviews |
| National Basketball Association | 291,395,000 |
| Olympic Games | 226,071,800 |
| Boxing | 204,827,200 |
| Kobe Bryant | 201,931,600 |
Some of the most searched keywords in relation to the Olympics make a lot of sense. The National Basketball Association has over 29 million (yes, you read that right) pageviews. In general, Basketball is very popular. The NBA in the United States and Canada, which consists of 30 teams in total, is recognized all over the world. They have international players from 39 countries who compete every year to get drafted.
Basketball is one of the most popular sports at the Summer Olympic Games — which, by the way, is the second most viewed keyword at around 22 billion pageviews. Boxing, a popular summer Olympic sport and all-year-round spectating event, comes in third with over 20 billion views. Kobe Bryant, one of the most famous basketball players in history during his lifetime and death, also made the top keywords.
See you all on February 4th for the 86th winter Olympic games! May the odds be ever in the olympians’ favor.