The United States men’s ice hockey team didn’t just make history on the ice in Cortina—they shattered records on the screen. NBC Sports announced Tuesday that the Americans’ 2–1 overtime victory over Canada averaged 20.7 million viewers, marking the most-watched sporting event in U.S. history to begin before 9 a.m. ET.
The gold medal game, which secured the first U.S. men’s title since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” peaked at 26 million viewers. This peak audience slightly outperformed the 2025 average for Sunday Night Football, a testament to the massive domestic interest despite the 8:10 a.m. ET start time.+1
Digital and Historical Milestones
- Streaming Giant: The game drew 3.7 million viewers on digital platforms, primarily Peacock, setting a new non-NFL streaming record for NBC.
- Historical Context: This stands as the second-most-watched hockey game in NBC history, trailing only the 2010 Vancouver gold medal game (27.6 million), which benefited from a domestic afternoon time slot.
- A Rising Tide: The success extended to the women’s side, where the U.S. victory over Canada on Thursday averaged 5.3 million viewers—a new record for a women’s hockey broadcast.
The 2026 Winter Olympics concluded as a resounding success for NBC, with a total event average of 23.5 million viewers, a 96% increase over the 2022 Beijing Games.