USA-Canada at NHL 4 Nations Draws 10.1M Viewers; Best Non-Cup Final Game Since 2014

USA and Canada's first best-on-best men's hockey matchup since 2016 drew record viewership numbers on Saturday.

The rivalry matchup in the Round Robin stage of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off drew 10.1 million North American viewers, the highest number recorded outside the Stanley Cup Final since 2014, according to NHL PR.

USA and Canada will meet for a second time in the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Game in Boston on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.

ESPN PR previously reported that the rivals' first meeting drew 4.4 million viewers to the network, with a peak of 5.2 million viewers.

According to Sportsnet PR, the game averaged 4.7 million viewers on the network and reached a total of 9.35 million Canadian viewers.

That's considerably more viewership than the NHL draws in through an average playoff game, even given a recent spike in Stanley Cup viewership.

The 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 1.54 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS and truTV, according to a June 2024 report from Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal.

Viewership numbers could potentially climb even higher during Thursday's tournament final, which will represent the first championship game between the Canadian and American men's teams since Canada came back to win gold in 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

The viewership success of the 4 Nations Face-Off is a good sign for a league planning on returning to the international stage multiple times over the next few years.

NHL players are going back to the Olympics for the first time since 2014 during the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.

Two years later the World Cup of Hockey, which hasn't taken place since 2016, will return in 2028 with a tournament that will feature at least eight competing countries.