Despite lacking the usual marquee teams, the Stanley Cup playoff viewership momentum carried into a fairly lopsided conference final round.
The NHL Stanley Cup Final was averaging 1.5 million viewers across ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports through the conference finals, up 59% from last year and the highest average on record at this point of the postseason (dates back to 1994). Viewership is up 13% from the previous high set in 1996.
Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Those changes will generally skew historical comparisons, particularly to years prior to 2020.
Despite neither series extending to a sixth game, both conference finals posted double-digit gains in viewership. As previously noted, the four-game Golden Knights-Avalanche Western Conference Final averaged 2.2 million — up 44% from last year’s five-game Oilers-Stars series on the network and the most-watched Western Conference Final since 2015.
The most-watched game of the series — and the conference finals as a whole — was Game 3 on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, which drew a 1.0 rating and 2.48 million on ESPN.
The five-game Hurricanes-Canadiens Eastern Conference Final averaged 2.0 million viewers on TNT Sports, up 41% from last year’s four-game Panthers-Hurricanes series (1.4M). While not a multi-year high for the event — Rangers-Panthers averaged 2.29 million on ESPN/ABC two years ago — it was the most-watched conference final on TNT Sports since it acquired NHL rights in 2021.
The most-watched game of the series was Game 3 on Memorial Day, which drew 2.3 million — up 74% from last year and the largest audience for a conference final game on TNT Sports. The series wrapped up with 2.1 million for Game 4 last Wednesday (+30%) and 1.8 million for Game 5 last Friday (+15%).
The top game of the playoffs remains Canadiens-Sabres Game 7 in the second round at just shy of 3.0 million viewers. Owing to their series against Buffalo, two Game 7s, and a trip to the conference finals, Montreal ended up playing in four of the top eight games prior to the Cup Final — the most of any team. That is despite Montreal occupying a Canadian market that does not count toward U.S. viewership.
Figures for Tuesday’s Golden Knights-Hurricanes Stanley Cup Final Game 1 will not be out until Thursday.
