This Paris Olympics witnessed the best-ever digital performances for World Aquatics in a single event, with +1,800% growth compared to the Tokyo 2020 Games.
LAUSANNE – This summer of swimming, diving, and water polo saw unprecedented stats across World Aquatics' digital platforms during the world's biggest media event: the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Paris La Defense Arena, Olympic Aquatics Centre, and the River Seine were the three aquatics marquees as 1,439 competitors from 191 countries competed in swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, and open water swimming at the Paris 2024 Games.
World Aquatics’ team of writers, photographers, and digital content creators brought the actions and emotions from the 49 aquatic medal events offered during the XXXIII Olympiad into digital and social feeds for aquatic sports fans around the world.
It was a time for record-breaking – and not just from the field of play – as World Aquatics saw eye-watering audience and engagement numbers throughout the federation's portfolio of digital channels during Paris 2024.
Across World Aquatics' social media platforms, there were 1.3 billion impressions, 621 million engagements, and 609 million video views.
As of today, World Aquatics digital community counts 5.6 million fans across the globe, with 1.1 million joining the aquatics family during the Paris 2024 Olympics.
This is a significant jump in key figures compared to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, as the World Aquatics channels saw a +1,800% growth in social media impressions during the Games-time period.
A well-crafted plan of fresh, original programming and archive content saw viewer figures skyrocket in Paris compared to the previous Olympic Games. This included launching the star-studded nightly recap show "About Last Night" that followed the evening swimming medals session. Former Olympic and World Champions joined hosts John Mason and Bailey Jackson in the studio to give their take on the action while providing insightful nuggets of information from their post-race analysis.
World Aquatics also caught up with current and former athletes to get behind-the-scenes updates from the French capital throughout the 16 days of competition. This included the "AQUA Fan Van," where hosts held interactive games with fans and tourists on the streets of Pairs while driving through the iconic locations and fan zones of the city.
"Our brand new show, About Last Night, and the AQUA Fan Van provided aquatics fans in Paris and those tuning in around the world with ways to connect with the competition further, celebrate our incredible athletes, and share the excitement of the Olympic Games," said World Aquatics Senior Digital Manager Luca Fasani. "The excitement around the event is palpable, and we brought out some of our best work yet to celebrate our sports in Paris."
This enormous surge in video generated an average of over one million video views per hour for 24 consecutive days.
The World Aquatics website was the home for longer-form content and live results. Taking into account the World Aquatics Championships over the past year in Fukuoka (2023) and Doha (2024), where many athletes and National Olympic Committees qualified for the Paris 2024 Games, the website generated over 1.5 million unique visitors who visited more than 34 million pageviews over the event period for these three events. In the past year, the World Aquatics website has generated 48.2 million page views from 2.6 million active users who spend an average of 4 minutes and 52 seconds per session —making the past 12 months the most followed period of aquatic sports ever.
With a stellar line-up of upcoming event hosts—including Singapore holding the World Aquatics Championships in 2025 and Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, hosting the Olympic Games in 2028—World Aquatics looks to ride this wave of momentum to further unforgettable content experiences and fan engagement in the future.