NHL television ratings experienced a significant decline during the 24-25 regular season, falling 12 percent compared to the previous year, with playoff viewership showing an even steeper drop.
Through Monday\'s playoff games, postseason broadcasts were averaging 718,000 viewers, representing a 27 percent decrease from the same period last year, raising concerns about the NHL\'s media performance.
The increased presence of Canadian teams in this year\'s playoffs was anticipated to impact viewership numbers in the United States, though Canadian ratings appear more robust. Game 1 of the Canadiens-Capitals series drew 1.68 million viewers on French-language TVA Sports, representing proportional viewership comparable to NFL conference championships in the U.S. market.
In the fourth season of the NHL\'s seven-year, $4.5 billion U.S. media rights agreements with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, games across ABC, ESPN, TNT, and truTV averaged 445,000 viewers per broadcast, down from last season\'s 504,000 average.
This marks the first viewership decline under the current media rights deals and represents the lowest combined average figures on ESPN and TNT Sports platforms, though still above the 391,000 viewers NBC Sports averaged during their COVID-affected final season with NHL rights in 2020-2021.
Despite these downward trends, the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament provided a significant bright spot, with ESPN averaging 9.3 million viewers for the U.S.-Canada final, making it the most-watched NHL game ever in the United States.