ESPN NHL ratings up big from last season

The 2023-24 NHL season continues to deliver record viewership on ESPN.

The Buffalo Sabres' 3-2 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday averaged 525,000 total viewers and 246,000 between ages 18-49, up 11 percent and 14 percent respectively from last season's comparable games.

The second part of ESPN's doubleheader on Tuesady, a 4-1 win by the Colorado Avalanche against the Seattle Kraken, averaged 513,000 viewers, including 260,000 from 18-49, up 51 percent and 55 percent from last year's comparable games.

On Oct. 10, the season's opening night, ESPN aired a tripleheader, which included the Chicago Blackhawks at the Pittsburgh Penguins, its most-viewed regular-season game on record. Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, got his first point in the 4-2 win by Chicago.

That game, along with the Tampa Bay Lightning defeating the Nashville Predators 5-3 and the Vegas Golden Knights topping the Seattle Kraken 4-1, each averaged 909,000 total viewers, peaking at 1.65 million. It was a 40 percent increase from last season's opening night doubleheader, which featured the Lightning against the New York Rangers and the Golden Knights against the Los Angeles Kings.

ESPN+ and Hulu will exclusively air the Edmonton Oilers at the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET), and ESPN will air Bedard and the Blackhawks at Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche (10:30 p.m. ET).

This coming Tuesday, ESPN and ESPN+ will hold "Frozen Frenzy," which will include a tripleheader on ESPN along with whip-around coverage of all 16 games on the NHL schedule that night on ESPN+ and ESPN2. For more on "Frozen Frenzy," click here.