NHL Winter Classic viewership remained below New Year’s Day levels, but still neared a season-high.
The January 2 Rangers-Panthers NHL Winter Classic from Marlins Park in Miami averaged more than 1.0 million viewers across TNT, truTV and HBO Max, up 6% from Blues-Blackhawks from Wrigley Field in Chicago on New Year’s Eve last year (920K). That figure that is within the margin that could be explained entirely by Nielsen’s methodological changes of the past year (specifically its expansion of out-of-home viewing and shift to “Big Data + Panel” methodology).
The Rangers’ easy win, which peaked at the end of the first period with 1.3 million viewers, delivered what was at the time the second-largest audience of the NHL season. Only the Penguins-Rangers game on ESPN Opening Night averaged more viewers (1.1M). A closer game might have surpassed the Opening Night contest, as viewership dropped off to 826,000 during the third period.
But the game was surpassed not 48 hours later by ABC’s Penguins-Red Wings game on Saturday, which drew 1.6 million — making it the most-watched game of the season and bumping the Winter Classic to third.
This year’s audience was still the second-lowest ever for the game (dates back to 2008), trailing every edition held on the New Year’s Day holiday (January 1, or January 2 when the year starts on a Sunday). The least-watched New Year’s Day edition was Golden Knights-Kraken two years ago, which drew 1.1 million.
It should be noted that the Winter Classic trailed the previous NHL outdoor game, the Red Wings-Blue Jackets Stadium Series game on ESPN last February (1.6M). In the past two years, there have been six NHL outdoor games, three in the Winter Classic and three in the Stadium Series. All three Stadium Series games outdrew all three in the Winter Classic.
The NHL on Wednesday announced that next season’s Winter Classic is set for Utah, with the Mammoth set to host the Colorado Avalanche. But the league notably did not specify a date or time.
The league’s decision to move the Winter Classic off of New Year’s Day coincided with the shift to a 12-team College Football Playoff, which has resulted in all of the New Year’s Day CFP games carrying playoff implications. (Under the previous four-team format, the New Year’s Day games carried playoff implications only every three years.) But with Winter Classic broadcaster TNT likely getting an annual New Year’s Day CFP game starting next year, it may be possible for the NHL to benefit from a direct college football lead-in.
As a general rule, a strong enough lead-in can turbocharge viewership even opposite the toughest competition.
