The National Hockey League held its second annual Frozen Frenzy on Tuesday, featuring all 32 teams in the league playing over a 7.5-hour span.
Three games were held on ESPN, and the network’s NFL Redzone-inspired programming, the Frozen Frenzy Whip-Around Show, was held on ESPN2. The ratings for all four programs were announced on Thursday, showing a substantial decline per Braylon Breeze who tracks NHL viewership.
Year-by-year comparison
| Year | Tripleheader (average viewers) | Whip-Around Show (average viewers) |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 426,000 | 196,000 |
| 2024-25 | 381,000 (-45,000) | 83,000 (-113,000) |
The tripleheader on the main network averaged just 381,000 viewers per game, an 11 percent decrease from what the three games achieved last year (426,000). The Whip-Around show did worse, dropping 56 percent compared to the previous season’s (196,000).
Washington and Philadelphia had the top-rated game, but they were down 15 percent compared to last year’s top-rated game between the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks (526,000).
Some fans have criticized the NHL and ESPN for holding all 16 games early in the week on a typical workday like Tuesday. The league was also facing counter-programming from the NBA as the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, and Minnesota Timberwolves all kicked off their 2024-25 seasons on the same day.
The poor showing aligns with other early TV ratings for the NHL this fall. The NHL Opening Night tripleheader on ESPN declined 39 percent year-over-year and was beat out by postseason action in both the MLB and WNBA.
None of the three games came close to touching the 1.43 million average viewers that Connor Bedard’s NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks against the Pittsburgh Penguins saw in 2023. ESPN’s first game, between the St. Louis Blues and Seattle Kraken, averaged just 348,000 viewers, down 42 percent from last season’s opening Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning game (598,000 viewers).
Per Breeze, through thirteen nationally televised games, ESPN and TNT Sports are averaging 431,000 viewers, down 29 percent from this point last season (607,000).
