Team Canada's 3-2 victory over the USA in overtime averaged 9.3 million viewers during the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship, the largest audience ever for an NHL broadcast.
The ESPN audience peaked at 10.4 million viewers and gave the network its largest non-NFL or college football viewership on the network's platforms since the 2024 NBA Finals. The previous high for an NHL broadcast was 8.9 million viewers for NBC's telecast of Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues.
Thursday's 4 Nations championship match still trails the gold medal game between the USA and Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, which averaged 27.6 million viewers for NBC. However, the most-watched non-Olympic ice hockey game is an impressive showing for a midseason international tournament in February announced a mere one year ago during the NHL All-Star Game. 16.1 million viewers across North America was the final total of viewers for Thursday's overtime thriller — including 6.8 million in Canada.
In fact, the 2025 championship game reached one out of every four Canadians on Sportsnet platforms.
Canada-USA NHL #4Nations Face-Off Championship delivers ESPN's largest hockey audience EVER: 9.3M viewers
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) February 21, 2025
🏒Peak: 10.4M viewers
🏒Most-viewed event on ESPN platforms since 2024 NBA Finals (excluding NFL & CFB)
🏒Most-viewed non-NFL event ever on ESPN+
🔗https://t.co/p474HEVpYz pic.twitter.com/EuVZGlqScr
The seven-game, best-on-best tournament actually averaged 6.5 million viewers across North America. This was up +256% from the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The final was also the second most-watched hockey game in North America in a decade — with the Edmonton Oiler vs Florida Panthers Stanley Cup Final Game 7 holding first place with 16.3 million viewers across North America.
The U.S.-Canada game from TD Garden in Boston, which Canada won 3-2 on an overtime goal byConnor McDavid, is the most-viewed non-NFL game ever on ESPN+. The broadcast also topped every U.S. cable telecast, except for NHL, college football and election coverage.
16.1 million viewers across North America (9.3M in 🇺🇸, 6.8 M in 🇨🇦) watched Thursday’s Canada vs. USA #4Nations Face-Off championship overtime thriller. pic.twitter.com/3Xlu8uZNxP
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 21, 2025
Although not one New York Ranger was a member of the Canadien/champion roster, the Blueshirts were still among one of the few NHL teams with over five players selected for the tournament — Mika Zibanejad (Sweden), Urho Vaakanainen (Finland), Vincent Trocheck (USA), Chris Kreider (USA), Adam Fox (USA), and J.T. Miller (USA).