Chalk it up to a rare ‘Olympic bump’ — or not — but hockey would seem to be enjoying some clear viewership momentum.
The 2025-26 NHL regular season averaged 546,000 viewers across ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports, up 25% from last year and the highest average in more than a decade. The 25% increase is on the high end of a general rise in sports viewership that includes gains of 35% for the NBA, 19% for men’s college basketball and 10% for the NFL.
(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 mere months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes. While that would not explain a 25% year-over-year increase, those changes generally skew comparisons to past years.)
Broadcast network ABC led the way with an average of 1.1 million for its 16 games, up a third from last year. ESPN followed with 602,000 across its 38-game schedule, up 48%. Combined, ESPN/ABC averaged 760,000 (+30%) and accounted for nine of the ten most-watched game windows this season.
TNT averaged 385,000 for its 72 games, up 21% from last year. The network was averaging 352,000 entering the Olympics break (+8%). Its post-Olympic slate averaged 453,000 (not counting the regular season finale), up 47% from the same stretch a year ago.
Sunday games were a notable area of strength this season. ESPN averaged 937,000 viewers for its expanded seven-game Sunday night slate, up 153% from four games last year. That includes 2.1 million viewers for the Bruins-Lightning Stadium Series game in February, the largest audience of the season on any network.
TNT’s Sunday slate averaged 713,000 viewers, up 77% from last year.
The good times have not been limited to the professional game. The recent NCAA men’s hockey tournament averaged 265,000 viewers on ESPN’s linear networks, up 50% from last year and the highest average since 2010. Airing on ESPN rather than ESPN2 — and airing between, rather than directly opposite, competing NHL games on ABC — the Wisconsin-Denver title game drew 901,000, up 52% and the highest for the game since 2009.
