NHL Opening Night viewership slipped opposite tougher competition, but the league recovered on the second night of the season.
Tuesday’s NHL Opening Night tripleheader averaged 747,000 viewers on ESPN, down 3% from 768,000 last year, when the season started a week later and faced less competition from the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Rangers-Bruins was the top game of the night with 878,000 viewers, down 19% from Penguins-Rangers a year ago (1.09M). Its Panthers-Hurricanes lead-in was not far behind with 859,000, up 16% from Blackhawks-Panthers last year (743K) and the league’s most-watched Opening Day matinee since Penguins-Flyers on NBCSN in 2021.
The Blackhawks-Golden Knights nightcap rounded out the night with 473,000, down 7% from last year’s Avalanche-Kings (511K).
Due to the expansion of the NHL season to 84 games per team, the season began in September for the first time since 2007. Opening Night coincided with the first day of the MLB Postseason, facing a four-game slate that included a Red Sox-Yankees game on NBC (7.31M). It also competed with the WNBA Playoffs, which attracted more viewers on both Prime Video (Aces-Fever: 1.42M) and USA Network (Lynx-Liberty: 1.06M).
By comparison, last year’s Opening Night took place a week later, airing on a night with half as many MLB playoff games and none in the WNBA.
On Wednesday, TNT averaged 587,000 for its season-opening doubleheader — up 58% from last year (372K) and its most-watched season debut since 2023. The Penguins’ 7-0 rout of the Flyers averaged 745,000, up 44% from Bruins-Capitals last year (516K). Kings-Avalanche followed at 420,000, up 75% from last year’s Kings-Golden Knights game (240K).
The MLB and WNBA playoff competition was almost exactly the same on Wednesday as on Tuesday, down to nearly identical viewership figures for the Red Sox-Yankees and WNBA games. But the year-ago competition was just as heavy, featuring four baseball games — including both the Yankees and Dodgers in primetime — plus Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
