The Winter Olympics ended with a show as the United States won its first gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980 with a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada thanks to a game-winning goal from Jack Hughes 1:41 into the overtime period.
Fans from around the globe tuned into the game, but how many were watching in Canada and the United States? The figures from the U.S. aren’t out yet, but the final ratings for Canada were released on Monday, Feb. 23, just a day after the game, and sparked some major questions.
One social media user pointed out the 2010 Vancouver Olympics men’s final between Canada and the United States averaged 17.9 million viewers and peaked at 26.5 million. Four years later in Sochi, the final between Canada and Sweden brought in 15 million viewers.
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Sunday’s gold medal game between the United States and Canada was expected to receive heavy viewership, but in the end just 8.7 million Canadians tuned into the event, which sparked major concerns about the state of hockey in Canada.
“That’s actually pretty surprising and disappointing especially since Canada’s population has increased over 7 million since 2010… what were you all doing Sunday morning??” one fan said.
“Unpopular opinion but it was a terrible game. The NHL product isn’t great and that’s what we got. The beauty of world juniors and other Olympic Games were non NHL game management. NHL is its own worst enemy,” suggested another.
A third called out, “This is actually fascinating and also plays into the fact that four nations was bigger (sorrrry!) honestly as someone who doesn’t care about numbers this is pretty disappointing!”
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