NHL shattered records on opening night

New York- Despite not being able to attend live games, the NHL had a huge viewing of a combined of 774,000 of individuals who tuned in for the later games during opening night.

The match-up that a lot of fans wanted to see or had the intriguing factor was the Philadelphia Flyers versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. Rightfully so, the game brought in 972,000 viewers, which made it the most watched regular season game on record.

We’re thrilled with these Opening Night tripleheader viewership results and that the league was willing to take a chance on our recommendation to start the season with Penguins-Flyers in the late afternoon,” said Sam Flood, executive producer, NBC Sports. “We can now add the most-watched Opening Night cable game on record to our impressive list of NHL viewership milestones, which includes the most-watched regular-season on record and the most-watched NHL game on record, among others.”

On the digital side, NHL brought in 17.3 million minutes and 285,000 unique devices, up 75% and 72%, respectively, vs. last year’s Opening Night doubleheader.

No live events no problem, attendance still peaked during this uncanny time.