Social Engagement with Tokyo Olympics Down 75% vs 2016 Summer Games in Rio

With the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for July 23, but not a sure thing (see Image Patrol, page 3), we asked data partner Shareablee to measure the games’ social engagement.

Shareablee provided data exclusively to PRNEWS focussing on Olympics-related social conversations from May 25, 2021, through June 23, 2021, beginning roughly 60 days and ending 30 days before the start of the Tokyo games.

There were more than 104 million actions, or consumer engagements, during this time period, according to Shareablee. Actions are the sum of consumer reactions, comments and shares on social.

Comparing the Tokyo games with the 60- and 30-day period in 2018 before the PyeongChang winter games, Tokyo boasts a 42 percent lead in consumer engagement, says Madison Busick, a Shareablee analyst.

That’s not a surprise. Some 200 countries send athletes to the summer games. Fewer than half that number participate in the winter games.

Compared with the 2016 Rio summer games, however, Tokyo is down 75 percent in consumer actions. We wondered about the severe downturn vs. Rio.

“We can guess it could be because Tokyo was delayed” from 2020, Busick says.