Hughes’ OT goal for Team USA vs Canada in Olympic final averages 26M live viewers on NBC, Peacock

By JOE REEDY, AP Sports Writer

Jack Hughes’ overtime goal, which gave the United States its first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980, drew an average audience of 26 million viewers on NBC and Peacock in the U.S., according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings and Adobe Analytics digital data.

Team USA’s 2-1 overtime victory over Canada on Sunday averaged 18.6 million live viewers (8:15-11 a.m. EST) on NBC and Peacock. The total rose to 20.7 million with encores on USA Network on Sunday afternoon and NBC late Sunday night.

According to Nielsen, it is the most-watched sporting event on record in U.S. history with a start time before 9 a.m. Eastern time.

It is NBC’s second-most-watched hockey game. Canada’s OT win over the U.S. in the gold medal game at the 2010 Vancouver Games averaged 27.6 million. That game had a 3:15 p.m. EST puck drop.

The North American audience when Hughes scored the golden goal was nearly 35 million. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday that 8.7 million were watching in Canada during overtime.

The Milan-Cortina Olympics averaged 23.5 million viewers in the United States, making them the most-watched Winter Games since 2014 and drawing a 96% larger audience than the 2022 Beijing Games.

NBCUniversal said the average includes combined audiences on NBC, Peacock, CNBC, USA Network and other digital platforms. It covered the live afternoon (2-5 p.m. EST) and prime-time (8-11 p.m. EST/PST) windows.

The gold medal game in women’s hockey on Feb. 19 — when Team USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime — averaged 5.3 million on USA Network and Peacock. The audience peaked at 7.7 million during Megan Keller’s golden goal.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics