Thursday night’s USA-Canada championship game at the 4 Nations Face-Off showed viewers’ appetite for best-on-best international hockey.
ESPN said the game, which Canada won 3-2 in overtime on a goal by Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, averaged 9.3 million viewers, its biggest hockey audience ever. It peaked at 10.4 million.
The network’s previous top hockey telecast was the Florida Panthers’ victory against the Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, which averaged 7.7 million viewers on ABC.
ESPN said Thursday’s game was also its most-viewed non-NFL event on ESPN+.
‘I think (the tournament) was a big success overall for hockey, a lot of viewers and a lot of fun,’ Team Sweden/Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling told reporters.
He called the tournament ‘very fast hockey,’ ‘surreal’ and a ‘memory for life.’
NHL players will be back at it next February in the 2026 Olympics. This tournament, which also involved Finland, was designed to be an appetizer for the league’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014. The NHL and players association also have announced a World Cup of Hockey for 2028.
The last international tournament featuring top NHL players was the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. This year’s tournament blew that one away.
The four games carried on ESPN and ABC averaged 4.3 million viewers, up 1079% from the 2016 games on ESPN, the network said.
Sportsnet, which carried Thursday’s game in Canada, reported similar ratings success.
It said Thursday’s game averaged 5.7 million viewers and reached 10.7 million Canadians. The audience peaked at 7.3 million when McDavid scored.