The Stanley Cup Final reached the four million viewer mark as Edmonton extended the series for another game.
Tuesday’s Oilers-Panthers NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 5 averaged a series-high 2.1 rating and 4.1 million viewers, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 50% in ratings and 51% in viewership from last year’s clinching Panthers-Golden Knights Game 5 on TNT and truTV (1.4, 2.72M) but down 13% and 20% respectively from Lightning-Avalanche on ABC two years ago (2.4, 5.15M).
All five games of the Oilers-Panthers series have increased double-digits from last year’s all-cable series, with the five-game average of 3.4 million up 31%. By the same token, all five games have posted a decline in viewership compared to Avalanche-Lightning in 2022, the previous Cup Final to air entirely on ABC.
Ratings and viewership were the second-highest for a Game 5 in the past five years, but the fifth-lowest in the past 17.
Compared to previous game fives involving a Canadian team, only Bruins-Canucks in 2011 averaged a larger audience in the past 30 years (4.32M). Keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen estimates until 2020. In terms of household ratings, which by definition will not include out-of-home, this year’s Game 5 rating trailed Bruins-Canucks in ’11 (2.6), Oilers-Hurricanes in 2006 (2.5) and Flames-Lightning in 2004 (2.5).
Including Canadian viewership on CBC, SportsNet and TVAS, Game 5 averaged a series-high 8.5 million, up 61% from last year. The full series is averaging 7.2 million, up 64%.
Entering an unexpected Game 6, the full Stanley Cup Playoffs is averaging 1.6 million viewers across the ESPN networks, up 43% from last year and up 8% from 2022.
