Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal in overtime for Canada to defeat the United States in the championship matchup of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament on Thursday night. The seminal international game emanated from TD Garden in Boston, Ma. in front of a capacity crowd and was witnessed from afar by a reported average audience of 16.1 million viewers across both countries.
The venture replaced traditional NHL All-Star festivities and has been considered by many media members and fans to be a resounding success for the sport as a whole. Thursday’s championship game was televised on ESPN, ESPN+, Rogers Sportsnet and TVA Sports. Compared to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, the game averaged 200,000 fewer viewers across the United States and Canada.
ESPN secured an average of 9.3 million viewers for the prime time broadcast, marking the most-watched non-Olympic hockey game on record, according to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. The previous high for an NHL game in U.S. history was the average of 8.9 million viewers attained in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues.
Compared to its presentation of the NHL All-Star Game last season, the international game achieved a 560% year-over-year proliferation in viewership, and it averaged 1.6 million viewers more than Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. Play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough, analyst Ray Ferraro and reporter Emily Kaplan called the championship game on ESPN.
Rogers Sportsnet and SportsNet+ in Canada attained an average minute audience of 5.7 million viewers for its broadcast of the game, according to viewership data from Numeris. The concurrent audience peaked with 7.3 million viewers when McDavid scored the tournament-winning goal. In terms of audience reach, the championship game of the 4 Nations Face-Off is estimated to have been promulgated to 10.7 million consumers. When combined with TVA Sports, the average consumption of the game rises to 6.9 million viewers.
The first matchup between the United States and Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament reached 10.1 million viewers across North America, which represented a 203% proliferation over the last time the two teams faced off from the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. The game started with three fights in nine seconds before the U.S. secured a 3-1 victory, which ended as the most-watched non-Stanley Cup Final game broadcast since 2014. ESPN and TNT Sports platforms attained an average of 1.8 million viewers for the six games preceding the championship of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
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