Four Nations Face-Off scores again as U.S.-Finland hits NHL season high

The NHL Four Nations Face-Off delivered another impressive audience Thursday night as the United States played its first game.

Thursday’s United States-Finland NHL Four Nations Face-Off game averaged a 0.75 rating and 1.55 million viewers on ESPN, marking easily the largest NHL-affiliated audience of the season. The previous high was 1.27 million for Golden Knights-Bruins on ABC last weekend, and the previous high for ESPN was 790,000 for Bruins-Panthers on Opening Night.

Excluding Stanley Cup playoff games, the United States’ win was the most-watched NHL-affiliated game on any network since the January 2023 Winter Classic on TNT (Penguins-Bruins: 1.78M).

The game ranked second for the night among sportscasts behind the NASCAR Duel at Daytona on FS1 (1.84M), though it easily outdrew older-skewing NASCAR among adults under 50. It topped the competing Grizzlies-Timberwolves NBA game, which drew 1.11 million on TNT (plus additional viewership on truTV that was not immediately available).

The Four Nations Face-Off already accounts for two of the five largest NHL audiences this season, with Wednesday’s Canada-Sweden matchup on TNT ranking fifth (1.05M). The other three games all aired on ABC: the aforementioned Golden Knights-Bruins, Rangers-Bruins the prior Saturday (1.06M) and Rangers-Capitals on January 4 (1.06M).

With the event replacing the NHL All-Star Game on this season’s schedule, it should be noted that U.S.-Finland outdrew every NHL All-Star Game since the February 2020 edition on NBC (1.70M).

Viewership figures to rise much higher on Saturday night, when the United States faces Canada on ABC in primetime — a matchup that figures to be even more heated than usual given the sudden tensions that have risen between the two nations over the past three weeks.