Tokyo Olympics: The Most Popular Olympic Opening Ceremonies, Ranked
The opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics is today and with 3.1 million global Google searches for ‘Olympics’ this month, it’s clear that we’re eager for the games to begin.
Opening ceremonies, in particular, have delivered iconic scenes leaving us feeling euphoric, such as James Bond and the Queen (London, 2012) and Rio’s mesmerising spectacle (Rio de Janeiro, 2016). But which ones are the most popular?
Compare.bet used YouTube to discover the most viewed opening ceremony videos via official channels to find the results.
|
Rank |
Host city |
Host country |
Year |
Youtube Video views |
YouTube Video likes |
YouTube Video dislikes |
|
1 |
London |
UK |
2012 |
15,136,095 |
111,938 |
9,546 |
|
2 |
Rio de Janeiro |
Brazil |
2016 |
5,409,242 |
88,179 |
2,446 |
|
3 |
Beijing |
China |
2008 |
5,058,984 |
20,137 |
943 |
|
4 |
Vancouver |
Canada |
2010 |
1,963,142 |
8,874 |
385 |
|
5 |
Athens |
Greece |
2004 |
1,357,121 |
26,347 |
523 |
|
6 |
Lillehammer |
Norway |
1994 |
861,922 |
1,796 |
245 |
|
7 |
Sochi |
Russia |
2014 |
715,971 |
3,860 |
260 |
|
8 |
Pyeongchang |
South Korea |
2018 |
624,934 |
10,076 |
307 |
|
9 |
Sydney |
Australia |
2000 |
584,725 |
29,305 |
238 |
|
10 |
Barcelona |
Spain |
1992 |
461,083 |
7,333 |
238 |
|
11 |
Seoul |
South Korea |
1988 |
362,158 |
6,543 |
152 |
|
12 |
Atlanta |
United States |
1996 |
319,269 |
3,634 |
189 |
|
13 |
Torino |
Italy |
2006 |
151,752 |
1,808 |
47 |
|
14 |
Salt Lake City |
United States |
2002 |
104,376 |
1,274 |
49 |
|
15 |
Nagano |
Japan |
1998 |
90,366 |
1,115 |
89 |
The most popular Olympic Games opening ceremony, according to YouTube, is London’s 2012 Summer Olympics. With a whopping 15,136,095 views, fans were immensely impressed when the “Queen” jumped out of the plane with James Bond. The ceremony embodied Britain’s history and culture with references to popular novels, films and soaps, and musicians.
In second place is Rio de Janeiro (2016) – 5,409,242 YouTube views. The opening ceremony celebrated Brazil’s vast culture and history, including its forests and landscapes, music and dances.
Ranking in third is Beijing (2008) with 5,058,984 views on YouTube. Hailed as one of the most exciting opening ceremonies, China carried on to win 48 gold medals – the most won gold medals of the 2008 Olympics!
Methodology:
- Compare.bet sought to investigate the most viewed Olympic Game opening ceremony over the last 33 years.
- To support this, they created a seed list of historic Olympic opening ceremonies.
- The official Olympic Games’ YouTube channel was analysed to discover the respective viewer figures. Compare.bet also noted down the likes and dislikes ratio.
- Subsequently, the countries were ranked according to the highest number of views.
- Albertville, France (1992) and Calgary, Canada (1988) were omitted from the results as there were no visible recordings from an official YouTube channel.
- All data was updated on the 22nd of July 2021.