NHL viewership up in first two weeks post-Olympics

So far, the NHL has kept the positive momentum from last month’s pair of U.S. gold medal hockey wins during the Winter Olympics, though it’s too early to tell if any increase in viewership can be sustained.

According to data published by Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the NHL has averaged 603,000 viewers per telecast across ABC, ESPN, and TNT over its first eight nationally televised games following the Olympic break. That figure marks a 23% increase from the league’s pre-Olympic average.

Last year, the league saw a smaller bump of 5% for the two months following the popular 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, though that increase could reasonably be explained entirely by Nielsen’s shifting methodology. Overall, any sort of 4 Nations-bump proved to be fleeting, with NHL decreasing by 12% year-over-year last season.

As Lewis notes, one cannot expect an increase in viewership from the Olympics, at least based on historical trends. Back in 2010, the last time the United States and Canada met for the gold medal featuring NHL players, there wasn’t any sustained viewership bump for the league.

Interestingly, ABC’s first NHL doubleheader following the Olympic break actually drew fewer viewers than its last NHL doubleheader before the Olympic break. Last weekend’s doubleheader averaged 1.03 million viewers, while the final doubleheader before the Olympics on January 31 averaged 1.3 million viewers.

Overall, NHL broadcasts across ABC and ESPN are averaging 785,000 viewers, up 17% versus this point last year. TNT Sports is averaging 353,000 viewers, up 6% year-over-year.

Some of those increases could reasonably be explained by Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel methodology, introduced September 2025. They can also at least partly be explained by the league’s particularly poor viewership last season creating some favorable comparisons.

But even if there isn’t a direct cause-and-effect viewership increase from the Olympics, it would still serve the league well to allow its players to participate. Last month’s competition put hockey on the map for tens of millions of Americans who would not typically watch a game. Over time, that type of exposure will pay dividends, be it through increased participation in the sport, more people attending a hockey game, or more of a proclivity to tune in again in the future when the time is right.

Few people will watch the U.S. win gold and magically become a Dallas Stars fan. But people will remember how it felt to watch that game and be more likely to engage with hockey in the future.