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Feb 17, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; Team Sweden defenseman Erik Karlsson (65) high sticks Team USA forward Jake Guentzel (59) during the third period in a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
The Four Nations Face-Off delivered another strong audience Monday night as nearly two million watched a game that had nothing at stake.
Monday’s Sweden-United States NHL Four Nations Face-Off game averaged 1.8 million viewers across TNT and truTV, marking the largest non-playoff NHL audience yet on the TNT Sports networks. The previous high was 1.78 million for the 2023 Penguins-Bruins Winter Classic. As Thursday’s final was already set by puck drop — United States-Canada — there was nothing on the line entering the game.
Sweden’s win delivered the second-largest NHL audience this season behind the United States’ win over Canada on ABC Saturday (4.44M).
The Four Nations Face-Off accounts for the top four, with the United States’ win over Finland on ESPN last Thursday ranking third (1.55M) and Saturday’s Finland-Sweden matinee on ABC placing fourth (1.30M).
The top audience outside of the Four Nations Face-Off is 1.27 million for a Golden Knights-Bruins game on ABC earlier this month.
Earlier Monday, a Canada-Finland matinee averaged 699,000 on TNT and truTV — the least-watched of the Four Nations games, but the fourth-largest NHL audience on the TNT networks this season behind Sweden-United States, Canada-Finland last Wednesday (1.05M) and the Blues-Blackhawks Winter Classic (920K).
TNT Sports averaged 1.2 million viewers for its three Four Nations games, on par with the network’s average for playoff games last season.
Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter), Threads or Bluesky.
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Jon, curious to get your viewership prediction for tonight championship game? I do think it will beat Saturday’s game, but I dont think it will be any record-breaking numbers as some predict. Having the game on ESPN instead of ABC will be a factor. I am thinking somewhere between 5-6 million in viewership. What do you think?
Most likely 7 million viewers in the USA and 15.5 million viewers in Canada because USA and Canada have been ice hockey rivals for a very very long time and I don’t think both numbers will be able to surpass the viewership numbers from Oilers–Panthers Game 7 because in the USA, ABC would generate more viewers than ESPN, but ESPN is airing the final and in Canada, CBC, Sportsnet, and TVAS (Citytv doesn’t count because it was using simultaneous substitution for the ABC feed), would generate a lot of viewers combined, but only both Sportsnet and TVAS are airing the final (though CBC will return to NHL action on Saturday during Hockey Night in Canada in the following two games: Hurricanes–Maple Leafs and Canucks–Golden Knights).
thanks. More interested in US numbers only. Not combined. We know the numbers in Canada are going to be massive. Its there sport. Its more fascinating to see what the US numbers will be for what is the 4th major sport on the totem pole.
Who says politics and sports don’t mix? I think the NHL should go full WWE
Would be interesting to see if Thursday’s USA/Canada finale numbers. It’s on cable but with all the political tension and anthem drama, I wonder if it can top game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last year(7.66million).
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