{"id":557525,"date":"2026-04-21T22:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557525\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:21:17","slug":"the-nhl-bounced-back-from-lower-viewership-last-season-for-its-best-regular-season-average-since-the-lockout-shortened-2012-13-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557525\/","title":{"rendered":"The NHL bounced back from lower viewership last season for its best regular-season average since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season."},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL bounced back from lower viewership last season<\/a> for its best regular-season average since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. All games across ESPN, ABC and TNT\/truTV averaged 546,000 viewers, which is the best mark since NBC and NBCSN averaged 590,000 viewers over just 70 games 14 seasons ago. <\/p>\n

This season was easily the best for the NHL under its rights deals with ESPN and TNT Sports, with viewership up 23% from last season.<\/p>\n

Even taking better audience measurement from Nielsen\u2019s Big Data into account, more people tuned into the NHL this year. Games across ESPN and ABC were up 30% this season (54 telecasts), as the company had its best audience since coming back as an NHL partner prior to the 2021-22 season, averaging 760,000 viewers. ESPN games averaged 602,000 viewers (38 games), which is up 48% from last season. ABC games averaged 1.1 million over 16 telecasts \u2014 up 33% for the broadcast TV network\u2019s best average under the existing rights deal.<\/p>\n

TNT Sports also had its best season yet as an NHL partner, averaging 381,000 viewers over 72 games (includes truTV simulcasts). That\u2019s up 21% from last season. TNT also had its best Sunday package of games yet (713,000 viewers). Following the Olympics, TNT\u2019s NHL games averaged 453,0000 viewers, which is 47% better than what the network averaged after last season\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off. It was TNT\u2019s best second half of the season yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"NHL 2025-26 viewership 1 <\/p>\n

Best of the best<\/p>\n

The Lightning-Bruins Stadium Series game on Feb. 1 on ESPN<\/a> was the best NHL audience this season at 2.07 million viewers, which also was the best regular-season game ever on cable TV. ABC\u2019s best game was Red Wings-Penguins on Jan. 3 (1.59 million).<\/p>\n

TNT had three of the five best cable TV games this season, led by Bruins-Flyers on March 5 at 1.2 million views. That marks TNT\u2019s best non-Winter Classic regular-season audience yet. <\/p>\n

The Bruins all teams with five games in the top 10, followed by the Red Wings (four) and Rangers (three). There were no Capitals games in the top 10.<\/p>\n

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