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The six-game series, won by the Carolina Hurricanes, ended well before ABC broadcast the NHL Championship Series the past two times.
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The 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Final produced plenty of goals, several wild comebacks and the series’ largest television audience in seven years.
ABC’s broadcast of the sixth and deciding game of the series on Sunday drew 5.9 million viewers, the most for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final since 2019. The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 on Sunday to win the Stanley Cup, four games to two. It is the franchise’s second NHL championship. The Hurricanes previously won in 2006.
The six-game series averaged 5.2 million viewers, also the highest since 2019 (which went to seven games). This year’s series was easily the most watched under the NHL’s current media rights deal, in which ABC and TNT Sports have taken turns broadcasting the Cup Final for years. The average viewership of 2.55 million viewers on TNT Sports for the 2025 series has multiplied 26 percent over ABC’s last cycle in 2024.
Sunday’s audience peaked with 7.2 million viewers from 10:45-11 PM ET as the Hurricanes skated to the final minutes of their title win.
The NHL rides the wave of pop culture themes in 2026, with shows like Hot competition and Off campus – Both are based on the best-selling book series in the romance subgenre set in the world of hockey – which should help bring some new audiences to the league. Both ABC/ESPN and TNT Sports saw improved television ratings for the previous rounds of the NHL playoffs as well: ESPN’s platforms (including ABC) had their most-watched playoffs ever (including the period from 1994 to 2002), drawing 2.2 million viewers per game. TNT Sports also had its best showing to date (starting with the 2022 playoffs), averaging 1.4 million viewers. TNT games were up 50 percent year-over-year during the conference’s final run.
ESPN and ABC are seeing a big hit in June. In addition to a multi-year high for the Stanley Cup, the NBA Finals had its most viewers since 1998 with 20.6 million viewers.
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