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Most watched hockey game ever?

EbencoyE

Registered User
Nov 26, 2006
1,958
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Does anyone know what the highest rated hockey game on TV ever was? Globally that is, not just in the U.S. or Canada.

I know in the U.S. it was the Miracle on Ice game, but I assume that wasn't a very interesting match-up anywhere outside of the U.S.

Is it even possible to gather global TV ratings like that, or would it just be an educated guess?

Anyway, I was just curious. You always hear about the Super Bowl and stuff being watched by billions of people around the world, but you never really hear about global TV ratings for hockey games.
 
It can only be an educated guess to my knowledge. The billions figure for the Super Bowl is a myth propagated by NFL marketing. They are actually talking about the potential audience of the game, meaning if everyone in the world who had a television with a channel that broadcast the game tuned in, it would be about a billion. The reality is that relatively few people (around 2 million estimated) outside North America actually watch it. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/steve_rushin/02/03/rushin0206/ and http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-05/...nce-super-bowl-european-championship?_s=PM:US
 
I would imagine the 2010 Gold Medal game just based on the Olympics being an international event and the world having a higher population than in 1980 or 1992 or whatever year you want to use.
 
AdmiralsFan24 said:
I would imagine the 2010 Gold Medal game just based on the Olympics being an international event and the world having a higher population than in 1980 or 1992 or whatever year you want to use.
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Wasn't the 2010 Gold Medal game a late start time though? Evening games in North America are in the middle of the night in Europe, and I doubt there was much interest in Europe for a Canada - USA match up to warrant many people to stay up so late.

I would think the Torino Gold Medal game would have had better ratings being an evening game in Europe and a late afternoon game in North America if I remember correctly.

And thanks Anton Cooper, never realized they didn't have actual numbers to back those claims up!
 
EbencoyE said:
Wasn't the 2010 Gold Medal game a late start time though? Evening games in North America are in the middle of the night in Europe, and I doubt there was much interest in Europe for a Canada - USA match up to warrant many people to stay up so late.

I would think the Torino Gold Medal game would have had better ratings being an evening game in Europe and a late afternoon game in North America if I remember correctly.

And thanks Anton Cooper, never realized they didn't have actual numbers to back those claims up!
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Finland vs Sweden, I can guarantee you that not many people watched that one in the USA and that only hardcore hockey fans watched it in Canada. Outside of Finland and Sweden, I don't think that game was THAT popular world wide. Finland has a very small population and I don't know how populate Sweden is, but it must not be THAT much. The interest in the USA for the 2010 final probably makes it the most watched game of all time. Oh, and never forget that 22 million Canadians watched it.
 
JordanStaal#1Fan said:
Finland vs Sweden, I can guarantee you that not many people watched that one in the USA and that only hardcore hockey fans watched it in Canada. Outside of Finland and Sweden, I don't think that game was THAT popular world wide. Finland has a very small population and I don't know how populate Sweden is, but it must not be THAT much. The interest in the USA for the 2010 final probably makes it the most watched game of all time. Oh, and never forget that 22 million Canadians watched it.
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I dunno, everyone I know through hockey watched the Sweden-Finland game. Not to mention it was on network TV here in the States and being a part of the Olympics, was no doubt on many many televisions across the country.

There may not have been as much interest as there was for 2010 obviously, but simply being the Olympics on NBC is pretty much a guarantee that the ratings were decent, though I don't have any numbers on hand.

I really think the timezones would have a lot to do with it. The Winter games only matter to 3 continents, NA, Europe, and Asia. Asia doesn't care about hockey, so what's most important is what times best fit both NA and Europe, and that would be a night game in Europe which would be a late afternoon game in NA.

I'm sure that more Europeans watched the Torino final than the Vancouver final, and although the Vancouver final obviously appealed more to North Americas, the Torino final was still on at a good time that the ratings should have been decent enough to mean it had the better ratings of the two.

But this is all speculation on my part.
 
EbencoyE said:
Thanks, I couldn't remember. Ignore my posts then. :laugh:

That was like 9 in the morning in Vancouver, strange..
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The game started at noon in Vancouver. there were lineups at venues & bars at 6 am. I was in those lineups.

1200pm in Vancouver = 300pm in NYC, Toronto = 800pm in London, etc...
 
tank44 said:
The game started at noon in Vancouver. there were lineups at venues & bars at 6 am. I was in those lineups.

1200pm in Vancouver = 300pm in NYC, Toronto = 800pm in London, etc...
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i.e. for most of Europe the game started at 9 pm, and it started at 10 pm in Finland, the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine... 11 pm in Western Russia.. that's pretty late.
 
EbencoyE said:
Wasn't the 2010 Gold Medal game a late start time though? Evening games in North America are in the middle of the night in Europe, and I doubt there was much interest in Europe for a Canada - USA match up to warrant many people to stay up so late.

I would think the Torino Gold Medal game would have had better ratings being an evening game in Europe and a late afternoon game in North America if I remember correctly.

And thanks Anton Cooper, never realized they didn't have actual numbers to back those claims up!
Click to expand...

Its my guess has well
 
Anton Cooper said:
It can only be an educated guess to my knowledge. The billions figure for the Super Bowl is a myth propagated by NFL marketing. They are actually talking about the potential audience of the game, meaning if everyone in the world who had a television with a channel that broadcast the game tuned in, it would be about a billion. The reality is that relatively few people (around 2 million estimated) outside North America actually watch it. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/steve_rushin/02/03/rushin0206/ and http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-05/...nce-super-bowl-european-championship?_s=PM:US
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I dont agree, i think there was like 3 million + people who watched it in Canada alone
 
Anton Cooper said:
The billions figure for the Super Bowl is a myth propagated by NFL marketing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, especially as the math just doesn't line up. If even 1/2 of the U.S. watched the Super Bowl on a given year (and, according to every ratings report, that's never been even close to being the case), for a billion people to watch it globally that'd mean that 850 million non-Americans watched it. That's flat out bull****, which should come as no surprise as the NFL has tried its pants off to pretend that the sport has an international following.

Still remember when the Bears played in London this past year and they tried to make the claim that, according to NFL research, there's something like 12 million NFL fans in the UK. If I had been drinking something at the time, I would've been rushing for a tissue to prevent a flood of soda or milk or whatever from pouring out of my nose.

As for most watched hockey game ever.... wouldn't be surprised if it was the past gold medal game in Vancouver, but no real clue.
 
No Fun Shogun said:
Yeah, especially as the math just doesn't line up. If even 1/2 of the U.S. watched the Super Bowl on a given year (and, according to every ratings report, that's never been even close to being the case), for a billion people to watch it globally that'd mean that 850 million non-Americans watched it. That's flat out bull****, which should come as no surprise as the NFL has tried its pants off to pretend that the sport has an international following.

Still remember when the Bears played in London this past year and they tried to make the claim that, according to NFL research, there's something like 12 million NFL fans in the UK. If I had been drinking something at the time, I would've been rushing for a tissue to prevent a flood of soda or milk or whatever from pouring out of my nose.

As for most watched hockey game ever.... wouldn't be surprised if it was the past gold medal game in Vancouver, but no real clue.
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According to Wiki:

The most watched television broadcast in Canadian history was the Gold medal game of the men's hockey tournament at the 2010 Winter Olympics, played between the United States and Canada at GM Place (renamed "Canada Hockey Place" for the Olympics) in Vancouver. A confirmed 16.6 million Canadians watched the whole game, roughly one-half of the country's entire population.[33] A groundbreaking 26.5 million Canadians watched some part of the game, over 80 percent of the country's 33-million-person population.[34] According to multiple sources, 13.3 million Canadians watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, which was the previous record.
 
Most watched NHL game in the US was Game 7 of the finals in 1971. It was the first time a NHL game was shown in prime time on a major network (CBS)

Amazing part of the story was Chicago was blacked out.
 
I think when we're talking hockey its safe to assume the highest watched game in Canadian history is likely the worldwide leader as well.
 
AdmiralsFan24 said:
I would imagine the 2010 Gold Medal game just based on the Olympics being an international event and the world having a higher population than in 1980 or 1992 or whatever year you want to use.
Click to expand...

I remember hearing that the group stage Canada-US game had better ratings than the final.
 
Anton Cooper said:
It can only be an educated guess to my knowledge. The billions figure for the Super Bowl is a myth propagated by NFL marketing. They are actually talking about the potential audience of the game, meaning if everyone in the world who had a television with a channel that broadcast the game tuned in, it would be about a billion. The reality is that relatively few people (around 2 million estimated) outside North America actually watch it. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/steve_rushin/02/03/rushin0206/ and http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-05/...nce-super-bowl-european-championship?_s=PM:US
Click to expand...


2 million estimated for the Superbowl outside North America? As much as I hate football, that sounds really sketchy to me. True, it's in the middle of the night, but the Superbowl is always so hyped, even in Europe, that a bunch of people watch it. I know quite a few people who do (Austrians, not Americans). I'm not saying it's particularly popular, but the idea that only 2 million people watch it out of 6 billion or whatever in the rest of the world just seems impossible to me.

Also, I would guess that the vast to go to a pub to watch it with others, so if those figures are based on some kind of ratings, they should take that into consideration.
 
I'd guess the final game in the Canada, Soviet series in 72. I know most of Canada watched it and probably most of Russia as well
 
I read that in addition to the North American total of like 40+ million average viewers, there was 10 million people in China that watched the entire game.

The 2010 gold medal game probably had like 65+ million viewers worldwide and then add on taped viewings and it could have reached 80 million.
 
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