![Feb 15, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team United States forward Matthew Tkachuk (19) and Team Canada forward brandon Hagel (38) fight in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images](https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/USATSI_25429594-scaled-e1739749901291.jpg)
Out of seemingly nowhere, the NHL has stumbled upon one of its biggest draws in recent years, the Four Nations Face-Off.
Saturday’s United States-Canada NHL Four Nations Face-Off game averaged 4.4 million viewers, per Nielsen fast-nationals — trailing only Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final (Oilers-Panthers: 7.67M) as the most-watched NHL-affiliated telecast of any kind in the past two years.
The United States’ win, which peaked with 5.2 million viewers, delivered the largest NHL audience outside of the Stanley Cup Final since 2019, when NBC averaged 4.7 million for a Blue Jackets-Bruins playoff game that followed the Kentucky Derby. It delivered the largest non-playoff NHL audience since the 2011 Winter Classic (Penguins-Capitals: 4.5M).
As goes without saying, it was the most-watched NHL telecast of the season. The Four Nations Face-Off now accounts for three of the six largest NHL audiences this season, with the United States’ opener against Finland ranking second (1.55M) and Canada’s opener against Sweden sixth (1.05M).
Among all non-football sportscasts, only five have averaged a larger audience since the World Series, all of them boosted by holiday out-of-home viewing — four NBA Christmas Day games on ESPN/ABC and a Thanksgiving Day Illinois-Arkansas college basketball game on CBS that had a direct lead-in from the NFL.
Given the size of the audience Saturday night, it is entirely possible the hockey game outdrew the competing NBA All-Star Saturday Night on TNT, preliminary figures for which were unavailable. Last year’s All-Star Saturday Night averaged 4.6 million.
The United States-Canada rivalry is always a marquee draw — their Olympic gold medal game in 2010 averaged nearly 28 million viewers in an era before out-of-home viewing — and Saturday’s matchup was particularly resonant given the broader political context. When the teams met in the Olympics three years ago, a tournament that crucially did not include NHL players, the matchup had just 1.22 million on USA Network.
The Four Nations Face-Off, a replacement for the NHL’s annual All-Star Game, has delivered in the ratings like few NHL events in league history.
