NHL Stadium Series doubles viewership of Winter Classic

The NHL Stadium Series is continuing to prove it is a viewership draw for the league, even more so than the Winter Classic.

The 2026 NHL Stadium Series between the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning pulled in 2.1 million viewers on ESPN. That is ESPN’s and cable’s most-watched regular season NHL game ever. The game is also the most-watched NHL regular season game since the Bruins-Blackhawks Winter Classic in January 2019 on NBC.

The 2026 Winter Classic drew only 978,000 viewers on TNT and TruTV. TNT Sports says that number rises above 1 million viewers when including streaming viewership on HBO Max that Nielsen does not measure.

Part of the problem for the Winter Classic has been increased college football competition. This year’s edition was moved to January 2 specifically to avoid college football.

But a much more significant problem for the Winter Classic may be the game airing on TNT. This year, six of the top seven most-viewed NHL games on cable have aired on ESPN, according to data from the TV Media Blog Substack. The Winter Classic is the only exception. Off cable, four games this season on ABC have outdrawn the Winter Classic.

The 2026 Stadium Series also increased 30% from last year’s Red Wings-Blue Jackets Stadium Series game, though some of that increase may be the result of Nielsen’s new Big Data measurement. Even so, the Stadium Series outdrew every NBA game on ESPN and ABC this weekend.

Overall, the NHL on ESPN and ABC is averaging 795,000 viewers this year. That’s up 39%. As of last week, games on TNT were averaging 340,000 viewers, up 2% from last year.

The NHL and ESPN have already announced that next year’s Stadium Series, which will feature the Golden Knights and Dallas Stars at AT&T Stadium, will air in primetime on ABC. That announcement was made before the release of this game’s viewership.

If the NHL really wants the Winter Classic to be its crown jewel regular season event, finding a way to move it back to over-the-air TV may be the only way, short of changing the date of the game entirely.