I don't think there is any denying that there are a number of factors at play here and one of them is the global resentment towards China who is hosting them.
Of course there are factors such as the fact that basically nobody even watches network television anymore. I know that at my house I don't even have network TV but only streaming services and just like how land-line telephones are a rarity now, I think this is a major factor as well. No matter what the reasons are, the simple fact is that it seems as though far fewer people even care that the Olympics is on right now.
I don't actually know anyone that is watching the Olympics and many of the sports bars in my immediate area are actually refusing to broadcast it in their establishments because of how they personally feel about China. I don't like to get involved in politics but I don't think you have to be in order to feel as though the country does some pretty shady stuff. For me it kind of reached a high point when Peng Shuai suddenly vanished after making comments about a former high level government official sexually abusing her. I don't really follow tennis really closely and she wasn't a big name in the sport but for someone to just totally disappear after making public comments about a government official is really suspicious and scary and while the Chinese government and now Shuai herself deny any wrongdoing on the part of the government, I don't think anyone is really buying the official story.
We can't really blame that lack in interest entirely on recent feelings about China though because if you look at the above chart, viewership, at least in the USA, has been dwindling for decades but the drop is far more dramatic this time around as a mere 7.2 million people tuned in for day one of the Olympic ceremony; down from 16 million that tuned in for the Winter Olympics in 2018. Has streaming become so much more of our lives in 4 years that this is the only reason behind the massive drop? I don't know. I haven't had network television for a long time and I don't really remember too many people being excited about the Olympics either winter or summer, for quite some time.
The United States has an official "diplomatic boycott" of the games because of the "suspected" human-rights violations against the Uyghur population. A diplomatic boycott is relatively meaningless though and I think that the people are speaking louder than the government is about this. For me, I've never really understood why nations put so much time, effort, and money into hosting these games. I wouldn't say that I have been very enthusiastic about them for decades.
Whether or not this massive decline in viewership is because people are fed up with China or not is kind of a mystery and we can only speculate on if that is the real case or not. I think the numbers speak for themselves though and the fact that I have a close knit group of friends that are all massive sports fans and none of us are even talking about the Olympics kind of says a lot about how interest has just waned and nobody cares.
We don't even talk about how we won't watch it for boycott reasons. We just don't really talk about it at all.
We are looking forward to the cracker of a UFC event that is coming up this weekend though, as well as the Super Bowl!
