Lumme claimed viewing figures in China alone could outstrip the world wide audience for the last Winter Olympics, at Pyeongchang in 2018. 

"Six hundred million in China have already watched the Games," Lumme revealed.

According to IOC figures, Beijing 2022 has already registered  the highest viewing figures on Chinese television since the 2012 Spring Festival.

Over the coming weeks, the IOC will continue to analyse the world wide audiences for the Opening Ceremony, Lumme promised. 

"We feel confident that the numbers will be equal to or superior to any previous Winter Games," he said.

"If you put together the number of television hours viewed by the global audience, it is higher than Sochi [2014] and Pyeongchang."

Lumme confirmed that in the United States, NBC’s terrestrial coverage of the Games after Sunday's Superbowl had maintained the broadcaster’s share.

"It delivered NBC’s top Olympic audience since the opening Sunday of Pyeongchang 2018," Lumme said. 

Previously, NBC’s figures for terrestrial broadcasts had come under scrutiny but the network currently hold the rights in the United States until 2032.

IOC figures reveal that an unprecedented two million minutes of coverage had been streamed in the US.

Lumme also hailed  viewing figures in Australia on Channel 7 and described them as "rather stunning statistics".

"Ten million have watched some aspect of the coverage," he said.

"It has ranked number one for the entire week, number one every day and number one in in all key demographics," 

Lumme claimed that European audiences were remaining high, despite a time difference which sees many key evening events in Beijing are live in the middle of the European working day.

"The audiences are getting quite used to watching their sport at different times," Lumme said.

"They have held up very strongly despite the lack of prime time coverage."