This year's Beijing Olympic Games might become the most viewed Games in history, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced, stating that numbers of viewers in countries like the United States are “very promising,” and could lead to records being surpassed, the European Journalism Centre (EJC) reported.

The opening ceremony on August 8 earned the status of the “highest sports related broadcast event” in China, with 840 million viewers. That number is predicted to reach 1.2 billion once final numbers are counted, according to the EJC.

The IOC launched a video channel on Google's YouTube with a focus on the Games. Timo Lumme, IOC Director of TV and Marketing Services, said the Internet as a broadcasting tool wasn't as developed during the Athens Games in 2004 as it is today.

NBCOlympics.com, for example, got 30 times more video views during the Olympics than it did four years ago, with over 22 million clips being viewed, according to the EJC.