NBC secured its second-largest hockey audience on record during Team USA’s gold medal game against Canada on Sunday.
According to NBC Sports, 18.6 million viewers tuned in live to watch the United States win gold over Canada in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic ice hockey competition. Per the network, it is the most-watched sporting event to start before 9 a.m. ET in U.S. history.
The game, which began at 8:15 a.m. and ran until 11 a.m. ET, when Jack Hughes’ golden goal ended the thriller in the early moments of overtime, is the second-most-watched hockey game ever on NBC, trailing only the 2010 gold medal game between the USA and Canada in the Vancouver Olympics. That game averaged 27.6 million viewers with a much more favorable start time (3:15 p.m. ET).
Viewership predictably peaked during overtime, with 26.0 million viewers across NBC and Peacock.
Team USA’s win beat out the 2002 gold medal game from Salt Lake City, also against Canada, which averaged 17.1 million viewers, also on NBC.
As goes without saying, Sunday’s audience far outnumbers any hockey audiences for non-international competitions. One would have to go all the way back to 1972 to find a Stanley Cup Final game to crack 10 million viewers, a figure that predates the Nielsen PPM era. The closest modern NHL audience would be Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, which averaged 8.7 million viewers on NBC.
When including viewers who watched an encore presentation of Sunday’s gold medal game on USA Network, a total of 20.7 million viewers tuned in for Team USA’s win.
The game was the most-streamed sporting event in NBC Sports history, excluding NFL games, with 3.7 million viewers across Peacock and the NBC Sports app.
Given the game’s early start time, such a large audience is certainly impressive. No doubt, the match extending into overtime and, later in the morning, helped the overall viewership figure. But it’s rare to see television audiences this large at any time of day, much less in the early hours of the morning.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.