Overlapping with the Rose Bowl, the NHL Winter Classic posted its smallest audience yet.
Monday’s Golden Knights-Kraken Winter Classic from the Mariners’ home field in Seattle averaged a combined 1.10 million viewers across TNT (1.03M) and truTV (76K), the smallest audience yet for the annual outdoor game. The previous low was 1.36 million for Blues-Wild in 2022, and no other game has averaged fewer than 1.7 million.
NHL Winter Classic viewership trend
The Kraken’s shutout win, which peaked shortly before the Rose Bowl began at 1.4 million viewers, declined 38% from Penguins-Bruins from Fenway Park in Boston last year (1.78M).
While the Winter Classic faces bowl games ever year, this year marked the first time since 2018 that the event has taken place on the same day as the College Football Playoff semifinals. With the West Coast locale necessitating a later than usual start (3 PM ET), the game overlapped with a Rose Bowl that finished as the most-watched non-NFL sporting event in five years.
Starting next year, New Year’s Day will annually feature three CFP quarterfinal games.
For the first time ever, the Winter Classic will not finish as the most-watched game of the NHL season. Monday’s audience ranks second for the year so far behind Blackhawks-Penguins on ESPN Opening Night, Connor Bedard’s first NHL game (1.43M).
Despite the decline, TNT’s NHL viewership remains up 17% for the season, including 24% increase in adults 18-34.
