Beijing: Most people think the Olympics are just about basketball, swimming, track, gymnastics and the other more popular sports. However, in the 2016 Rio Olympics, badminton has become arguably the most popular Olympic sport in China, in terms of the TV ratings.
The Olympic men’s singles final between No. 1 seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and Chen Long of China posted a 7.08% rating. Viewership of the men’s singles final performed slightly better than women’s volleyball final between China and Serbia which logged a 7.03% rating.
Furthermore, when it comes to the top 10 television ratings for the Rio Olympic Games in China, badminton ended up being the most popular sports of the Olympic Games when it swept 7 places in the top 10 spots.
Here is the entire top 10 list of highest-rated Rio Olympic events in China.
Badminton: Men’s Singles final: Lee Chong Wei vs Chen Long: 7.08%
Volleyball Women’s final: China vs Serbia: 7.03%
Badminton: Men’s Singles semi-final: Lin Dan vs Lee Chong Wei: 5.91%
Badminton: Men’s Singles quarter-final: Lin Dan vs K Srikanth: 4.95%
Table Tennis: Women’s Team semi-final: China vs Singapore: 4.46%
Badminton: Men’s Singles Bronze play-off: Lin Dan vs Viktor Axelsen: 4.39%
Badminton: Women’s Singles semi-final: Li Xuerui vs Carolina Marin: 3.97%
Badminton: Men’s Doubles semi-final: Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan vs Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge: 3.64%
Badminton: Men’s Doubles bronze play-off: Chai Biao/Hong Wei vs Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge: 3.57%
Volleyball: Women’s semi-final: China vs Netherlands: 3.56%
