The numbers may have been juiced by jingoism and a healthy dose of fisticuffs, but when international hockey is as good as what the U.S. and Canada served up Thursday night, it’s going to do numbers.
ESPN’s telecast of the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game averaged 9.25 million viewers, making it the fourth most-watched NHL game in history and the league’s biggest draw since the modern Nielsen era began in 1988. It was no doubt helped by the recent cross-border tensions stirred up by President Donald Trump’s tariff policy toward Canadian goods.
The three games that drew a larger TV crowd were all staged in the early 1970s, well before Nielsen reconfigured its methodology around the People Meter. Topping all comers with 12.4 million viewers, CBS’ coverage of Game 7 of the 1971 Stanley Cup Final between Montreal and Chicago was seen in 21% of all U.S. TV households.
Also putting a strain on the Nielsen dials were Game 6 of the Bruins-Rangers Final in ’72 (10.9 million viewers) and Game 6 of the ’73 Canadiens-Black Hawks series (9.41 million).
For the purists who argue that the Me Decade figures aren’t compatible with Nielsen’s current methodology, it’s worth noting that any NHL game that has aired since September 2020 has been the beneficiary of scores of bonus out-of-home impressions. For example, 5% of the 4.44 million viewers who watched last Saturday night’s U.S.-Canada showdown took in the action from a friend’s home, a bar or a restaurant.
Eliminate the Nixon-era games and Canada’s 3-2 overtime win stands as the biggest NHL audience in history. ESPN’s average delivery beat out Game 7 of the 2019 Blues-Bruins Final by 530,000 viewers. Given last weekend’s out-of-home contribution, it’s likely that Thursday night’s game would have still topped the NBC mark even without the additional OOH impressions.
Though it’s unlikely that the NHL will bring back the 4 Nations format in the coming years, the league hopes the excitement around the tournament will translate to bigger ratings in the second half of the season. Before the midseason break, ABC earned bragging rights for the season’s biggest NHL crowd with a Feb. 8 Golden Knights-Bruins game that averaged 1.27 million viewers.
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