The NHL had its best Stanley Cup Playoffs on record, averaging 1.8 million viewers for all games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, TNT and truTV. That tops the prior record of 1.56 million back in 1996 on Fox and ESPN (by 17%), and is up 68% from last season. The playoff high comes after the league saw its best regular-season numbers in 14 years.
ESPN networks delivered 2.2 million viewers for 43 playoff games, marking its best figure yet for the Stanley Cup Playoffs (for the current and previous rights deals). Those games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 were up 127% compared to last year, and up 19% vs. 2024. Meanwhile, TNT also had its best playoffs yet, dating back to when it became an NHL partner in 2021. Playoff games across TNT, TBS and truTV averaged 1.4 million viewers, up 50% from last year through the conference finals.
The six-game Hurricanes-Golden Knights series averaged 5.2 million viewers, marking the best Stanley Cup Final since the seven-game Blues-Bruins series averaged 5.5 million in 2019 on NBC/NBCSN. Hurricanes-Golden Knights is up 106% from Panthers-Oilers on TNT/truTV last year (2.5 million), and up 26% from Panthers-Oilers on ABC in 2024 (4.2 million).
Game 6 of Hurricanes-Golden Knights averaged 5.9 million viewers on Sunday night, marking the best Game 6 of a Cup Final since Blues-Bruins drew 6.5 million on NBC in 2019. Sunday night’s game peaked at 7.2 million viewers at 10:45pm ET.
Outside of hockey, the 5.9 million for the clinching Game 6 is on par with what ABC drew for the Virginia-Missouri Gator Bowl in late December. It’s also right around what NFL Network drew for Falcons-Colts in early November from Berlin and for Commanders-Dolphins in mid-November from Madrid.
