Stanley Cup playoff viewership remains at a high point entering the conference finals.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs has averaged 1.073 million viewers on NBC Sports’ TV and digital platforms, up 1% from last year (1.067M), up 9% from 2017 (988K), and the highest average on record through two rounds (dates back to 1994).
The second round of the playoffs averaged 1.62 million (+3%), also the highest average on record.
As has been the case all postseason, the games on cable have over-performed relative to last year. On NBCSN, USA and CNBC, the playoffs have averaged 911,000 viewers (including streaming) — up 10% from last year (825K) and the highest on record.
In the final games of the second round, Tuesday’s Stars-Blues Game 7 had a 1.1 rating and 1.86 million viewers and Wednesday’s Avalanche-Sharks Game 7 had a 0.9 and 1.67 million. Those figures are TV-only. Including streaming, the former had 1.97 million viewers and the latter 1.75 million.
Both games earned a larger audience than last year’s second round Game 7, Jets-Predators on a Thursday night (1.56M; 1.61M including streaming).
Locally, Avalanche-Sharks had an 11.7 rating in Denver, the market’s highest for an NHL playoff game on NBC Sports, and a 5.2 in the Bay Area. Blues-Stars Game 7 had a 16.0 in St. Louis and a 5.2 in Dallas-Ft. Worth.
[Numbers from NBC Sports; Nielsen via Programming Insider 5.9]
