2026 Winter Olympics poll: Figure skating, snowboarding draw most fan interest
Editor’s note: These results are derived from a Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted Jan. 27-30 among 1,596 US adults. The Poll, which is sponsored by The Sharkey Institute within Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business, features a nationally representative sample from YouGov PLC., weighted on US Census Bureau figures for age, gender, ethnicity, education, income and geography with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0%.
Before the Winter Olympics kicked off in Milan, Italy, Seton Hall Sports conducted a sports poll from Jan. 27 through Jan. 30. The poll included responses from 1,596 US adults with a margin of error of 3% in either direction. Every four years, the world tunes in to the Winter Olympics to watch Olympians compete in unique competitions, captivating courses and odds-defying spectacles.
But are “wow” factors of the Winter Olympics and GOAT athletes (like Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin) enough to engage the general population? What about die-hard NFL or NBA fans? In the age of social media, will people even turn on the television to watch the Olympic events or will they only catch snippets on TikTok and Instagram? Here’s the data Seton Hall Sports collected around the topic.
From Feb. 4 to Feb. 22, the 2026 Milan Cortina Games will host 2,900 athletes in 15 venues throughout northern Italy. There will be 116 medal events across 16 disciplines. When it comes to actually watching these events live, viewers need to have an account for any NBC Universal streaming platforms including Peacock, NBC.com and the NBC app.
The majority of US adults who participated in the Seton Hall Sports Poll did not have any account for NBC Universal streaming platforms. Forty-eight percent of avid sports fans said “yes” when asked about having any NBC account, rounding out the group with the most “yes” responses. And not surprisingly, only 17% of participants who claimed to be “Olympic non-fans” had an NBC account.
Most survey participants ranging from the general population to Olympic fans to casual fans and more, admitted they would not be signing up and/or subscribing to any of the NBC Universal streaming platforms before the 2026 Olympics to access live and bonus content. Because of the six-hour time difference between the US and Italy, however, fans of the Olympics have the option of watching the prime-time NBC broadcast that features prerecorded events.
This leads us to the question “Will people check the internet and social media for any event results prior to watching any events on the prime-time live broadcast?” And perhaps not shockingly, 45% of avid fans plan on checking for results before tuning into the broadcast — the largest percentage among all participants.
Participants were most excited to watch figure skating. The allure of the athletes on the ice draws 59% of Olympic fans and 53% of female fans, the largest percentages among all participants. Avid sports fans are most excited to watch ice hockey with 44% of participants. (Petition to propose this question again in the wake of the “Heated Rivalry” craze?)
Coming in second after figure skating, the snowboarding events won over participants with 33% of casual fans, 42% of Olympic fans, 26% of male fans and 27% of female fans.
Now we can’t talk about the Winter Games without talking about the more distinctive events like luge, curling and bobsled. You’d think that since most Americans witness these events only every four years that they’d be more inclined to tune in? Well, sadly, that’s not the case. The greatest percentage of luge, curling and bobsled viewers came from the Olympic fans.
The consensus: Olympic fans reign supreme when it comes to who will actually be watching, supporting and engaging with Olympics content. But don’t rule out the avid sports fans, who might be more inclined to watch football or basketball or baseball. They won’t say “no” to tuning into a riveting sporting event — whether that’s alpine skiing, bobsledding or speed skating.
