With the caveat that the 2010 final aired on cable, NBC had a dramatic increase in viewership for the Olympic women’s hockey final.
Thursday’s Canada/United States Olympic women’s hockey gold medal game drew 4.9 million viewers on NBC, according to Nielsen fast-nationals, up 96% from the same match-up on MSNBC in 2010 (2.5M). Viewership was the highest for women’s hockey final since 2002, when coverage aired in NBC’s primetime window.
Canada’s comeback victory earned the largest audience of the Olympics for a hockey telecast — topping the previous high of 4.1 million for last Saturday’s USA/Russia men’s game on NBCSN. Keep in mind that does not include Friday’s USA/Canada men’s semifinal.
NBC’s live online stream of the game also attracted 1.2 million unique users.
A direct comparison was not available, but it appears that the women’s hockey final easily topped live coverage of the women’s figure skating free skate. NBCSN averaged 1.2 million viewers for its daytime coverage Thursday, which primarily featured the figure skating event.
