Fueled by a record-setting Game 7 finish, the Stanley Cup Final — and the playoffs as a whole — ended up at multi-year highs.
The seven-game Blues-Bruins Stanley Cup Final averaged a 3.0 rating and 5.33 million viewers on NBC and NBCSN, up 11% in both measures from last year’s five-game Capitals-Golden Knights series (2.7, 4.80M) and up 11% and 14% respectively from the six-game Penguins-Predators series in 2017 (2.7, 4.68M).
The Blues’ win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Stanley Cup Final in four years — since the six-game Blackhawks-Lightning series in 2015 (3.2, 5.55M).
It trails only 2015 and Blackhawks-Bruins in 2013 (5.76M) as the most-watched Cup Final since at least 2000. That is with or without streaming included. Including the average streaming audience of 138,000 — a record for a Cup Final on NBC Sports — the series averaged 5.47 million (+11%).
The 3.0 average rating is the third-highest for a Cup Final since at least 2002, matching Kings-Rangers in 2014 and behind the aforementioned 2015 and 2013 (3.3) series.
St. Louis was the top rated market for the series, averaging a 28.7 rating. Boston ranked second at a 25.5, followed by Bruins secondary market Providence. Buffalo was the top neutral market (9.5), with Kansas City (5.6) rounding out the top five.
The complete Stanley Cup postseason averaged a 0.9 rating (+5%) and 1.48 million viewers (+5%) across the NBC family of networks, with viewership total rising to 1.53 million with streaming included (+6%). After falling off of a record pace in the conference finals, the postseason finished as the most-watched since 1996 (1.56M).
St. Louis (5.2), Boston (4.9) and Providence (3.9) were the top markets for the full postseason, no surprise given their large local ratings during the Cup Final. Buffalo ranked fourth (3.4), with Pittsburgh and Denver tying for fifth (2.0).
Most-watched Stanley Cup finals
[Numbers from NBC Sports PR 6.13]
