Four Nations Face-Off ends with milestone audience for Canada's OT win

Feb 20, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team Canada forward Connor McDavid (97) celebrates scoring in overtime to win with defenseman Devon Toews (5) and defenseman Cale Makar (8) and forward Mitch Marner (16) against Team USA during the 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey championship game at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

An audience approaching ten million viewers watched the final game of the Four Nations Face-Off, capping the NHL’s biggest success story in some time.

Thursday’s Canada-United States Four Nations Face-Off final averaged a 4.0 rating and 9.25 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience for an NHL-sanctioned game in the Nielsen people-meter era (dates back to 1988). The previous high was 8.72 million for Blues-Bruins Game 7 in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, a game that took place before Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates. (All things being equal, that game likely would still rank as the most-watched.)

If one goes back further, the Four Nations final ranks as the most-watched NHL game since Game 6 of the 1973 Stanley Cup Final (Canadiens-Blackhawks: 9.41M) and the fourth-most watched all-time, according to historical data released by then-rightsholder NBC 15 years ago.

As goes without saying, Canada’s overtime win delivered the largest NHL audience ever on the ESPN family of networks, topping the previous mark of 7.66 million for last year’s Oilers-Panthers Stanley Cup Final Game 7.

Compared to other international hockey competitions, Canada-United States easily outpaced every Olympic men’s and women’s hockey match since the 2010 final between the same two teams, which averaged 27.6 million on NBC.

Among all non-football sportscasts, Canada-United States ranks as the most-watched since Game 5 of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series back in October (18.15M), the most-watched on cable since the UConn-Purdue NCAA men’s basketball national championship on TNT Sports last April (14.82M), and the most-watched on ESPN since the Iowa-UConn NCAA women’s basketball national semifinal last April (14.42M).

Compared to other recent team sport international competitions, viewership unsurprisingly fell well short of last year’s United States-France Olympic men’s basketball final on NBC (20.3M, including Adobe Analytics), but easily outpaced the 2023 United States-Japan World Baseball Classic final on FS1 — which ended with Shohei Ohtani striking out then-teammate Mike Trout (4.97M).

The seven-game Four Nations Face-Off delivered the five-largest audiences of the NHL season. Prior to the start of the tournament — a one-time replacement for the NHL All-Star Game — the largest audience was 1.27 million for a Golden Knights-Bruins game earlier this month.

Note: Nielsen as of this month expanded its out-of-home viewing sample to cover 100 percent of markets (up from two-thirds previously). As a result, viewership figures will generally compare favorably not only to past years, but even to past weeks.

ESPN-MLB split includes radio, streaming

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 16

Hello Larry says:

1 year ago

Amazing numbers and I could totally see this replacing the All-Star Game permanently in non-Olympic years. The ratings for the tournament shocked me out of the gate. Some people have bought up the political tension, but we’ve seen non-US vs. Canada games rate good throughout this tournament. I just think people like to see international competition which is why this is such a great sign for NBC that they’ll get a huge winner at the Olympics with the NHL players back in international competition at the Olympic games.

The NBA could take a page out of this as the Olympics was really popular for basketball last year and just do away with the traditional All-Star Game and just do an international tournament featuring 4-8 countries. I would transfer the NBA Cup and make this the new NBA Cup tournament to take place every February. Maybe put it in March during Olympic years.
ESL says:

1 year ago

Amazing numbers. I never expected they could have gotten this kind of number on ESPN. (I believe they could have gotten close to 15 million on ABC). I think both ESPN and Turner did a terrific job covering the tournament. Sean McDonough was great on the championship broadcast. I think it was his best hockey game he has done. One minor complaint. I think the networks could have done a better job promoting the league. This was an NHL sanctioned event. It was a great marketing tool for the league. There should have been more discussion on the league in general. They could have done a review of the Stanley Cup contenders. And talk about some of the great players who weren’t competing in the tournament. And the most glaring omission was Alex Ovechkin. He is closing in on Gretzky’s all time goals record. This was barely mentioned on the tournament. There were many times during intermissions to discuss. With the record-breaking viewership numbers, there were a lot people watching this tournament who never watched an NHL game. I think both ESPN and Turner missed a big opportunity to promote the league more during the broadcasts. It would have benefitted the networks because they are invested in the rights (which could help increase ratings for the remainder of the season).
Samuel says:

1 year ago

The NBA should be ashamed of themselves after seeing this wonderful event take place. This was an event that was just supposed to be some mid season exhibition replacing the all star game and ended up being one of the most watched NHL-related events ever. Of course the political “51st state” nonsense is what sparked this record audience but the difference between the NBA all star game and the 4 Nations is that the NHL players actually cared and took it seriously. The problem with the NBA and its media partners right now is that no one takes the league seriously. That’s why all you get is threes all game and current players trashing the product live on air. The NHL’s league offices doesn’t do much right but they absolutely got it right with this event and it’s the players to thank more than anything.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  I just don’t know why NBA players should be ashamed for not bringing the intensity of an international competition to an All-Star Game. It’s an All-Star Game. The reason Four Nations exists is because the NHL got *rid* of their All-Star Game, which wasn’t exactly played like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
  - Samuel says:
    
    1 year ago
    
    In my opinion, NBA players still need to bring a level of intensity to the table and act like they care about the product. Let’s not forget, it may be an exhibition but people in the stands are paying big money to attend the whole weekend, not to mention the viewers at home. They don’t need to play the game like a playoff game but recently it has been unacceptable. As millionaire athletes, go out there and respect the product or simply skip the game. The problem is, we’ve seen this brand of basketball now in games that count. Just chuck up threes and make zero effort on defense. If the NBA needs to replace the All-Star Game with an international competition, so be it. But between the players and TNT, this game/production was insulting to all the fans, both at the game (who had to wait 15 minutes for a tribute in the middle of the game!) and the fans watching at home.
- gattaca says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  NHL owners/Bettman should be ashamed of themselves for not releasing their players for best-on-best competitions for over 10 years.
KB says:

1 year ago

Incredible. I think without the political tension between the two countries, it would likely have been less than half.(Probably in the 3-4 million range). Still a huge win.
Sean says:

1 year ago

What’s even more impressive is the ratings figures. Only a handful of deciding Stanly Cup games have had better ratings in the last 20 years. If it was ABC I really think it would’ve done at least 4.5 and probably be in touching distance of 5.0.
Rob says:

1 year ago

It’s interesting to compare the ratings of the last WBC final, also on cable (FS1). That was around 5m. The USA played against its top baseball rival, I would think, in Japan – it had Trout vs Shohei etc. Why the difference? The WBC was also doing very well in terms of buzz in 2023. Was it the Trump/51st state factor that was the difference?
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  Thanks for the reminder. I had meant to mention that figure in this article.
  - Jon Lewis says:
    
    1 year ago
    
    As to your question — ESPN vs. FS1, the broader political climate, out-of-home viewing increase, are all factors.
- Jerry says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  If the 2026 WBC has another USA vs Japan close game final, and come down to say Shohei vs Judge or Skenes vs Shohei final out showdown, I’d put money on it having double the ratings from 2023.
George Cooper says:

1 year ago

What it even more remarkable is that it was birthed organically, and absolutely no one had a prediction for these numbers before the event started. The political theatre (tariffs, booing of anthems, fights staged or not) helped some if only marginally but mostly it was the players buying into the “product”. The question going forward is what type of rating would a final of Sweden-Finland generate. However, even if that game loses 50-60%, the Cup would still be a massive win for the NHL because even that game would eclipse the previous lackluster NHL All Star format, not to mention the multiple games featuring USA & Canada regardless of whether they made the finals. A staggering win for the NHL.
- sunrise089 says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  I’m sure the political angle added viewers. And Finland-Sweden in a final would have done much worse. But overall I agree with you that the event just ‘felt’ big, in part because the players and the broadcast teams were so bought in. Very high contrast to most all star games, NBA and NFL especially which might have more shoulder programming but where it’s obvious the players don’t really care. This was a great event.
- Brian says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  I understand why they were not included, but this event would have more competitively (and geopolitically) interesting if Russia, which has the fourth-most NHL players, had been in it.
JEAN H PIERRE says:

1 year ago

The NHL has a winner in terms of this format. It’s great for hockey and for ESPN and Warner Brothers Discovery. The ratings would have been higher if it was on ABC.