Despite reports that some seats at the Sochi Olympics are not being filled, people seem more than happy to watch the events on television, with audience numbers surpassing those for the 2010 Vancouver Games.
The average audience for Sochi is 8 percent higher than for Vancouver, a difference of 25.1 million viewers, an International Olympic Committee spokesman told Interfax Tuesday.
Around 26.3 million viewers are watching the Olympics in the evenings and the American audience is 6 percent greater for Sochi than it was for Vancouver, spokesman Mark Adams said.
Adams said that 9.2 million viewers in Germany watched Felix Loch successfully defend his Olympic gold medal in luge and that 8.7 million viewers worldwide tuned in for the ski jump, a record for the event.
Olympic organizers said Tuesday that the Sochi Games have sold 924,802 tickets so far, The Associated Press reported. A few IOC members, such as Norwegian Gerhard Heiberg, have said that unfilled stadiums have left some events lacking in atmosphere.
