The viewership numbers from the men’s hockey championship game between the United States and Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics are officially in.
History was made.
The gold medal game was the most-watched sporting event with a pre-9 a.m. ET start time in U.S. history, according to NBC.
An average of 18.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the U.S. and Canada battle for the top honors in men’s hockey. The game saw a peak viewership of 26 million.
The clash between the United States and Canada for the gold medal started at 8:10 a.m. ET (2:10 p.m. in Italy) on Feb. 22 at Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan.
The Olympics saw an increase in viewership overall, NBC said.
The network averaged 23.5 million viewers throughout the international competition that lasted over two weeks, a Feb. 23 news release said.
The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games were the most most-viewed Winter Games since 2014, when the competition was staged in Sochi, Russia. Compared to the most recent Winter Games, the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, there was a 96% increase in viewership.
NBC’s viewership success has the network highly anticipating the next Olympic Games, which will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
‘We can’t wait for the return of the Olympics to the United States with the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and are ecstatic to be the U.S. media home of five Olympic Games over the next decade,” NBC wrote in its release.
NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel said in a statement that the outcome proved that ‘the American audience will gather in large numbers’ to experience the Olympic competition.
‘These Winter Games — superbly hosted across northern Italy, and produced and distributed by a team of 2,700 — reached blockbuster U.S. audiences of more than 50 million viewers each day, continuing the media dominance we experienced less than two years ago at the Paris Olympics,’ Zenkel said.