USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off finale a fantastic smash hit
Viewership high in U.S. but fails to outdraw Super Bowl in Canada
The United States may have lost in overtime to Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off in overtime Thursday night but did beat them in another metric: the ratings.
The hotly contested series between the two countries drew an eye-popping 9.25 million viewers on ESPN, marking the most-watched hockey game (excluding the Olympics) since Game 6 of the 1973 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks from Chicago Stadium (9.41 million) on NBC, despite the game being blacked out in the Chicago area. The 9.25 million is the highest number in the People Meter era, topping the 8.7 million Game 7 of the 2019 Boston Bruins-St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup Final and outdrew Game 7 of last year’s Edmonton Oilers-Florida Panthers Stanley Cup Final (7.66 million.)
The 4 Nations Face-Off was the most-watched show of the evening on any network, beating Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, Matlock, Elsbeth, Law & Order, and Next Level Chef. The game also finished first among adults 18-49, with a 3.1 rating and 4.2 million viewers, and among adults 25-54 with a 3.6 rating and 4.4 million viewers. The final drew a 4.0 household rating.
The game outdrew every Blackhawks Stanley Cup clincher in the 2010s and drew the largest ESPN audience for any hockey game on the network in its history.
In Canada, SportsNet drew 5.7 million viewers for the game, making it the second most-watched hockey game in the country’s history, but it fell short of the eight million viewers the Super Bowl drew for TSN earlier this month, itself down from ten million last year. Saturday’s USA-Canada matchup – which featured three fights in the first nine seconds of the game – drew 5.7 million for Sportsnet and French-language broadcaster TVA. Numbers for Thursday night’s final on TVA have yet to be released and added to SportsNet’s viewership, could surpass the total viewer count in the U.S.
It isn’t known if the 4 Nations Face-Off would return in the future since 2026 has NHL players in the Olympics in Italy and the World Cup of Hockey is scheduled for February 2028. The NHL has already said it would not hold the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2027 or 2029, leaving the possibility for the All-Star Game to return in those years. Regardless of whether it comes back, the 4 Nations Face-Off proved to be the most exciting event to ever happen to this sport, and for the NHL, NHLPA, and its media partners in both countries, it was a ratings and marketing victory no matter who won.