On Thursday night, 4 nations face-off championships attracted an important audience for the broadcast of ESPN between USA and Canada.
Canada’s 3–2 victory over the USA in overtime average 9.3 million viewers, the largest spectator for NHL broadcasting. The previous high was 8.9 million for the telecast of NBC of Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup final between Boston Brins and St. Louis Blues.
ESPN audiences brought 10.4 million viewers to its peak and gave the network their largest non-NFL or college football spectators on the network’s platforms since the 2024 NBA final.
Thursday’s 4 national championship matches still complete the gold medal game between USA and Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the average of 27.6 million spectators for NBCs. However, the most viewed non-Olympic ice hockey game made an impressive performance in February for a Midson International Tournament, which was announced during the NHL all-star game last year.
The USA-Canada finals attracted an audience with the game, usually considered more popular in the United States, as a terrible announcement. For example, the final round of masters attracted 9.59 million to CBS. The November college football match between Indiana and Ohio State attracted 9.33 million viewers on Fox.
In the Canadian side, Sportsnet an average of 5.7 million viewers and TVA attracted 1.18 millionProviding a total audience of about seven million. During high overtime on Sportsate, Connar McDawid scored a game winning the game for the team Canada.
Only last year’s game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between Florida Panthers and Admonton Oilors attracted a high number of spectators in Sportset, CitetV and CBC to average 7.55 million viewers in Canada. However, Panthers-Oilors Matchup was broadcast on TV in Canada, while 4 Rashtra Championships were only on cable.
Overall, more than 16 million spectators in North America prepared for the game.
Last Saturday’s meeting between Canada and USA in the 4 nations tournaments, the 3–1 USA victory that made headlines for three quarrels in nine seconds of the game, on an average 4.4 million viewers on ABC with a 5.2 million shikhar. Sportsnet attracted 4.7 million audiences for the game.
