The 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Final produced a lot of goals, several wild comebacks and the largest TV audience for the series 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 a game six 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’s 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 alternate years airing the Cup final. It more than doubled the 2.55 million viewer average on TNT Sports for the 2025 series and was up 26 percent from ABC’s last turn in 2024.
Sunday’s audience peaked with 7.2 million viewers from 10:45-11 p.m. ET as the Hurricanes skated to the final minutes of their title.
The NHL has ridden a wave of pop-culture cachet in 2026, with shows like Heated Rivalry and Off Campus — both based on best-selling book series in the romance subgenre set in the hockey world — helping bring some new audiences to the league. Both ABC/ESPN and TNT Sports saw improved TV ratings for the earlier rounds of the NHL playoffs as well: ESPN platforms (including ABC) had their most watched playoffs ever (including a stretch from 1994-2002), 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’s games were up 50 percent year to year through the conference final round.
ESPN and ABC are having quite a run in June. In addition to the mutli-year highs for the Stanley Cup, the NBA Finals delivered their largest audience since 1998 with 20.6 million viewers.
