The 2008 Beijing Olympics in China drew the largest television audience in the history of the Olympic Games, with 4.7 billion people across the globe tuning in to the spectacle between 8 and 24 August. This astonishing figure equates to 70% of the population, or roughly two out of every three people on the planet, and smashes the records previously set by Athens 2004, which pulled in 3.9 billion viewers, and Sydney 2000, which attracted 3.6 billion.