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Even with a challenging early Sunday morning time slot in the U.S., the viewership for the U.S. men’s hockey team’s win in the gold medal game made all sorts of history.
NBC Sports said late Tuesday that the Americans’ 2–1 overtime win over Canada averaged 20.7 million viewers across the broadcast network, Peacock, and Versant’s USA Network. That figure represents the second-most-watched hockey game in NBC Sports history, trailing only the 2010 men’s ice hockey gold medal game, involving the same teams, that averaged 27.6 million viewers in an afternoon time slot. The dramatic 2026 contest completed the first U.S. gold medal win in men’s hockey since the famous Miracle On Ice team in 1980.
The 2026 title game started at 8:10 a.m. ET (5:10 PT), presenting a tougher ask for viewers—even with the more favorable, six-hour time difference between the U.S. East Coast compared to other recent Winter Olympics. Still, the contest represented the most-watched sporting event on record in U.S. history, starting before 9 a.m. ET. The game peaked with an audience of 26 million, a number slightly above the 2025 average for the network’s Sunday Night Football broadcasts, during the overtime period that including the game-winning golden goal by Jack Hughes.
An average of 3.7 million viewers watched on NBC streaming platforms, mostly on Peacock, the network’s largest streaming audience ever outside of NFL game coverage.
The viewership figure, as is custom across the television business, included live and same-day viewing. The live broadcast itself on NBC and Peacock averaged 18.6 million viewers, while replays later Sunday on USA Network and local NBC stations added another 2.1 million.
The audience for the men’s gold medal game followed an average of 5.3 million Thursday afternoon for the final clash in women’s ice hockey—also won by the U.S. in overtime over Canada. That broadcast now stands as the most-watched women’s hockey game.
A Final Flourish
The viewership for the men’s ice hockey game presented yet another emphatic total to close out what was a massively successful Winter Olympics for NBC.
For the entire event, the network averaged 23.5 million viewers, up 96% from the 2022 event and the most-watched Winter Olympics since 2014. That figure is based on full Nielsen Big Data + Panel data through Feb. 19 and preliminary data for the last three days of the competition
