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Olympic Golds Online, if Not in Competition

The Olympic motto may be “higher, faster, stronger.” But the way the 2018 Pyeongchang Games have transpired it may as well be meh, nah, really?

With only a couple of days left, the United States’ medal count of 21 is behind the 28 it won at the 2014 Sochi Games. NBC’s prime-time ratings are down, too, about 16 percent from four years ago, though, for the first time, the network is streaming Winter Olympics events live, which has helped to keep that viewership drop to 8 percent over all.

But another barometer could be telling, too, of the Olympics’ popularity: Most of the viral hits online from the Games, according to data from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and CrowdTangle, an analytics tool owned by Facebook, have little to do with athletic achievement.