Almost 50m people watched Olympics coverage on Snapchat over the course of the Rio 2016 Games, thanks to broadcasters including NBC and the BBC partnering with the app in an effort to reach millennial users.

Almost one in three of Snapchats daily users viewed Olympics coverage within the apps Live Stories feature, suggesting that the platform could challenge social networks like Facebook and Twitter when it comes to covering live events with global interest.

According to The Irish Times, 49m unique visitors viewed Olympic content on Snapchat within the first seven days of the Rio Games. Figures from Nielsen suggest that 41 per cent of all 18 to 34 year olds in the US use Snapchat every day.

Snapchats Olympics coverage was largely thanks to its partnerships with NBC, the official US broadcaster of the Olympics, and online publisher BuzzFeed. The three firms worked together to create a dedicated channel on the apps Discover platform that included exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

The channel was supported by seven brand partners, including Walmart and Dicks Sporting Goods, which ran Olympic-themed video advertisements between the short-form videos. Many of the sponsors will be returning for Snapchats coverage of the Paralympic Games, which begin in Rio on 7 September. Globally, Snapchat partnered with broadcasters in seven different countries to deliver Olympics content, including the UK and host nation Brazil.

For most broadcasters, Snapchat formed just a small part of their overall Olympic coverage, with many also partnering with Facebook and Twitter to deliver content. However, success at the Olympics may prove more crucial for Snapchat than these other social networks, proving that it can deliver live coverage to a much-sought audience with native video ads hard-baked in.