No, Paris Olympics aren’t lowest rated in modern history | Fact check

An Aug. 1 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows an image from the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony on top of an image of the Olympic rings in front of the Eiffel Tower.
“Paris now has the lowest-rated Olympic Games in modern history: ‘People want sports, not blasphemy,'” reads text in the post.
The post’s caption says, “The stands are half-empty, and the ratings are in the toilet. The IOC says the games will lose more than $300 million over the blasphemous opening they allowed to happen, Go woke go broke.”
It was shared more than 200 times in 10 days. Similar posts appeared on X, formerly Twitter.
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NBC broadcasted the 2024 Paris Olympics and reported viewership was up during the first five days of the Games, when the claim was made. Ratings were also up overall. The claim originated on a satirical website.
The Paris Games began in late July with an opening ceremony some found controversial, with critics complaining it mocked “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Jesus and his disciples before the crucifixion. While organizers insisted it was an homage to the Greek god Dionysus, the moment was criticized by some Christian groups and political leaders.
But it hadn’t led to a decline in viewership when the claim was made Aug. 1. In the first five days, an average of 34 million people watched prime-time Olympics coverage on NBC and Peacock, up 79% from the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games, according to NBC, which cited Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
The opening ceremony had nearly 29 million viewers, up from 17.9 million viewers – a 33-year low – for the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, Axios reported.
By the end of the Paris Games, the average number of prime-time viewers stood at nearly 32 million people, a 77% increase from the Tokyo Games, NBC reported.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said during an Aug. 9 press conference that the Paris Olympics will be “the most followed ever in Olympic history.” He said the Olympics’ official social media accounts had about 12 billion engagements during the Games.
“The figures are just going through the roof both in broadcast and in digital numbers,” Bach said.
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The U.S. men’s basketball team played a gold medal game Aug. 10 against France that peaked at 22.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched gold medal game since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, USA TODAY reported.
The claim originated with the satirical network America’s Last Line of Defense, which labels itself as satire on its “About Us” page, saying, “Everything on this website is fiction.”
It’s an example of what could be called “stolen satire,” where posts written as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
There are no credible reports and nothing on the IOC’s website or social media accounts that indicates it expects the Games to “lose more than $300 million,” contrary to the post’s claim.
Nearly the entire budget to organize the Paris Olympics came from the private sector, “namely the IOC, partner companies, the Games ticket office and licensing,” the IOC’s website says.
The costs associated with hosting the Games have increased over the last few decades, according to a Council on Foreign Relations report. For example, the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 after being delayed a year due to the pandemic, generated $5.8 billion in revenue but had $13 billion in costs.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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