USA-Canada Olympic Showdown Becomes Most Watched Pre-9 AM Game In US History
It was the most watched pre-9 AM sporting event ever
I think we all knew that when we got up before 8 AM here on the East Coast on a Sunday to watch Team USA take on Team Canada in the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game, it would do some serious numbers.
And, boy, did it ever.
NBCUniversal has revealed that 20.7 million viewers watched the game across NBC, Peacock, and USA Network, with that number peaking at 26 million during overtime.
This makes it the second-biggest hockey game NBC Sports — which was the NHL's top broadcast partner from 2006 to 2015 (remember OLN and Versus?!) — behind only the 2010 Vancouver Olympics gold medal. That game pitted the US against Canada and went to overtime as well, but started at the much more viewer-friendly time of 3:15 PM ET.
Team USA's win over Canada to take men's hockey Olympic gold for the first time since 1980 saw huge viewership numbers. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
This also made the game the most-watched pre-9 AM sporting event in American history, which is incredible… but I'm not sure how much competition it has.
All I could think of were some NFL games in Europe (although those might start at 9 or a little after) and Formula 1 races in places like Azerbaijan and Hungary.
So, not a ton of competition, but I think this is a record that will stand for quite some time.
READ: FORMER NHL STAR JEREMY ROENICK WAS FORCED TO WATCH USA HOCKEY WIN GOLD DEEP IN ENEMY TERRITORY
However, the bit that might excite NBCUniversal the most in an age where streaming is a huge focus was that the average number of viewers on Peacock was 3.7 million, making it the biggest non-NFL stream NBC Sports has ever had.
North of the border, the game did numbers as well; however, those viewers probably weren't quite as jazzed about the outcome.
In a country of around 41 million people, 8.7 million viewers is a big number… but I thought it would've been higher.
Sure, by percentage, more Canadians were tuned in than Americans, but I still thought it would've been even higher.
Maybe they've seen enough puck up there; they knew the vibes were off when they saw Medal of Freedom recipient Connor Hellebuyck dropping saves that bordered on miraculous and Nate MacKinnon failing to hit the broadside of a barn.