Hockey is currently riding high on the back of a very successful international competition.
The 4 Nations Face-Off, which replaced this season’s NHL All-Star festivities, has been viewership dynamite for ABC and ESPN. Last Saturday’s round robin game between the United States and Canada drew a staggering 4.4 million viewers on ABC.
That number trails only Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers as the most-watched hockey telecast in two years, per Sports Media Watch. It was also the most-watched non-Stanley Cup Final game since 2019, when NBC aired a playoff game directly after the Kentucky Derby.
Suffice it to say, even the most optimistic of prognosticators likely wouldn’t have predicted an audience that large for Saturday’s game.
And now, the two countries will meet again on Thursday night to determine a champion for the first-ever 4 Nations Face-Off. The only question now is who will win, and how many people will watch.
It’s easy to get excited about another monster viewership number coming down the pike for hockey, but those expectations probably need a bit of tempering. Saturday’s game had the distinct advantage of airing on ABC, a broadcast network. Thursday’s game will air only on ESPN, which has less of a built-in audience than ABC.
But perhaps more important is simply the momentum factor. By Thursday night when the puck drops, the Americans will have gone nearly five full days since playing a meaningful game since they had already clinched a spot in the championship prior to their Monday game against Sweden. That might be just enough time for more casual viewers to forget about the competition, or simply lose interest.
There’s also the reality that Saturday’s game was the first time in over a decade that the Americans and Canadians competed against each other in a best-on-best international competition. That rivalry certainly holds a lot of weight, especially in the current political environment, but may lose some of its novelty during the championship since the proverbial “seal” was already broken on Saturday.
That’s not to say that Thursday’s audience won’t surpass the 4.4 million from last weekend. This is a championship game after all, and there’s clearly an excitement to see best-on-best international hockey after such a long hiatus. And let’s be honest, ESPN and the NHL likely would’ve taken 4.4 million for a USA-Canada championship game if that was offered to them before the competition began.
Another small factor could be TNT’s NBA doubleheader capturing some of the casual audience on Thursday night, though Saturday’s game took on NBA All-Star festivities which didn’t seem to impact the final number too much.
Overall, Thursday’s championship game will likely beat out the round robin game on Saturday, but won’t put up the type of truly gaudy number some are predicting.
The official Awful Announcing viewership prediction: 5.32 million viewers
