A lot of people tuned in for the men’s hockey Gold Medal Game at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
In a press release from NBC Sports PR, Team USA’s 2-1 overtime victory over Canada averaged a combined 20.7 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and Versant’s USA Network, and peaked at 26.0 million live viewers on NBC and Peacock for Jack Hughes’ Golden Goal in overtime.
The numbers are based on Nielsen Big Data + Panel and Adobe Analytics digital data. NBC added that 18.6 million watched live from 8:15-11 a.m. ET and 2.1 million viewers watched encores on NBC (on Sunday after late local news) and USA Network (Sunday at 4 pm ET).
According to the channel, the viewership marked the most-watched pre-9 a.m. ET sporting event in United States history.
The Gold Medal Game is also NBC Sports’ second most-watched hockey game ever, trailing only the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Gold Medal Game (27.6 million viewers), which had a more palatable 3:15 pm ET puck drop. Excluding NFL games, the USA-Canada instant classic had NBC Sports’ most-watched streaming audience, averaging 3.7 million viewers, led by Peacock.
“As the final medal event, the gold-medal hockey game was a fitting crescendo to a spectacular 17 days of Milan Cortina Winter Olympic competition that we were so honored to present,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said in a statement. “We applaud all the athletes, organizers, and our gracious hosts, and thank our passionate Team NBC colleagues who worked tirelessly to bring these Winter Games, Super Bowl LX, and the NBA All-Star Game to more than 215 million Americans in our ‘Legendary February.’”
NBC’s huge numbers come a day after the CBC announced that 8.7 million Canadians tuned in for the game’s conclusion and that roughly 30.5 million Canadians saw some part of the grudge match on CBC’s English and French TV networks and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet, and RDS. The 30.5 million figure means roughly 73 percent of Canada’s population watched the game, compared to 13.2 percent in America at its peak.
Thursday’s Gold Medal Game between the U.S. and Canadian women was also the most-watched women’s hockey game on record, averaging 5.3 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock. The audience peaked at 7.7 million viewers in overtime (3:45-4 p.m. ET).
NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2036 (Los Angeles 2028, French Alps 2030, Brisbane 2032, Utah 2034, and the 2036 Summer Games).
