MONTREAL — It’s rare the NHL can upstage the NBA—especially when hockey has been struggling with ratings during the regular season and special events like the 2025 Winter Classic on New Year’s Eve, which drew record-low viewership. But when Team USA squared off against Team Canada on Saturday night in the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, NBA All-Star festivities were barely a footnote to the evening.
The new international best-on-best hockey tournament featuring the U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland stole the spotlight as an overwhelming reception swept social media—an online buzz as big as the earsplitting roar within Montréal’s Bell Centre.
The enthusiasm was validated by the game’s huge ratings: According to ESPN, the U.S.-Canada game averaged 4.4 million viewers on ABC, peaking at 5.2 million. It makes the matchup the most-viewed non-Stanley Cup Final hockey broadcast since 2019.
“Real humans are watching NBA skills competition over USA vs Canada and I feel bad for them,” wrote one person on X. “I didn’t have Gary Bettman outshining Adam Silver on my bingo card this year,” wrote another.
Even as Mac McClung won his third consecutive Slam Dunk Contest, pro basketball fans made clear that they had their attention elsewhere. “I’m the biggest NBA fan on the planet,” a 4 Nations Face-Off viewer posted on X during the U.S.-Canada game, “but the difference in buzz vibe and intensity between NBA’s All-Star weekend and the NHL 4 Nations is astronomical.”
The NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off is, as of now, a one-off; the league will return to its normal All-Star Game in 2026 on Long Island, N.Y., at UBS Arena. Despite worries about fan reception for a novel tournament, 4 Nations Face-Off was able to unseat a well-established, Saturday primetime event in a league far bigger than the NHL.
The massive response to 4 Nations Face-Off shines another stark light on the flagging interest, poor viewership, and years-long struggle to make the NBA’s All-Star events relevant again. It’s a problem even NBA commissioner Silver has explicitly addressed, and the NHL’s eclipse is one more indication that the league has an All-Star conundrum on its hands.
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