Ratings Roundup: NHL Sees Best Regular Season Average Since 2013; CBS Sports Secures Most Watched Final Round Masters

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, Manchester-Arsenal on NBC Sports' is most watched Premier League match in the US ever; NBA Playoffs opens with highest viewership on record; and more.

The NHL Notched its Best Regular-Season Average Viewership Since the Lockout-Shortened 2012-13 Season

All games across ESPN, ABC and TNT/truTV averaged 546,000 viewers, which is the best mark since NBC and NBCSN averaged 590,000 viewers over just 70 games 14 seasons ago.

According to SBJ, this season was easily the best for the NHL under its rights deals with ESPN and TNT Sports, with viewership up 23% from last season.

ESPN scored its most watched NHL season of the current rights era, topping every season since the rights returned to ESPN in 2021 22, across ESPN and ABC. ESPN averaged 760K viewers across 54 games on ABC and ESPN, 30% YoY and bested the 2023-24 regular season, which was the previous high in the current rights era (667K viewers). Across key demos, the NHL on ESPN networks experienced significant year-over-year audience growth, including females 36%, P2-17 46% and P25-34 32%.

Individually, the NHL on ESPN averaged 602K viewers (38 games) and the NHL on ABC averaged 1.1 million viewers (16 games), both new highs in ESPN's current rights era. Games on ESPN were up a strong 48% YoY, while ABC was up 33%. ESPN bested the 2023-24 season (487K viewers) to earn the top spot, while ABC outpaced the 2022-23 season (1 million viewers).

On a single game viewership basis, ESPN finished with nine of the top ten most-watched games this season across all networks, led by the 2026 NHL Stadium Series (Feb. 1, 2026) between the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning which delivered the most-viewed regular season game ever on cable with 2.1M viewers, 30% vs. last year's Stadium Series (Red Wings-Columbus Blue Jackets). It was also the most-viewed Stadium Series game on cable and ESPN's most-viewed NHL regular season game on record. ABC Hockey Saturday's Penguins-Detroit Red Wings game averaged 1.6M viewers, 51% vs. last year's first ABC Hockey Saturday game. The game delivered ABC's most-viewed matchup in the current rights deal.

In addition to Stadium Series, other marquee tentpole events included Opening Night tripleheader (Oct. 7, 2025) which delivered 768K viewers, highlighted by Penguins-Rangers delivering ESPN's second-best opening night game on cable behind the Blackhawks-Penguins in 2023. Third Frozen Frenzy (Oct. 28, 2025) with all 32 teams in action featured an ESPN tripleheader, was up 20% YoY (Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers; Washington Capitals-Dallas Stars; Los Angeles Kings-San Jose Sharks).

TNT Sports also had its best season yet as an NHL partner, averaging 381,000 viewers over 72 games (includes truTV simulcasts). That's up 21% from last season. TNT also had its best Sunday package of games yet (713,000 viewers). Following the Olympics, TNT's NHL games averaged 453,0000 viewers, which is 47% better than what the network averaged after last season's 4 Nations Face-Off. It was TNT's best second half of the season to date.

CBS Sports Delivered the Most-Watched Final Round of the Masters Since 2015, Averaging Nearly 14 Million Viewers

Sunday's Final Round (2:00-7:17 PM ET) Averaged 13.995 Million Viewers, Up 8% vs. Last Year

Coverage Peaked with 20.049 Million Viewers, Largest Peak for the Masters Since 2013

Paramount on Sunday Registered its Biggest Golf Day Ever

NBC Sports' Manchester City-Arsenal is Most-Watched Premier League Match in U.S. History

NBC Sports' presentation of second-place Manchester City's crucial 2-1 victory over first-place Arsenal this past Sunday, April 19, is the most-watched Premier League match in United States history, averaging 2.6 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and NBC Sports Digital platforms, based on official Nielsen Big Data Panel and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

Two of the three most-watched Premier League matches in U.S. history have aired across NBCUniversal platforms in this 2025-26 Premier League season.

MOST-WATCHED PREMIER LEAGUE MATCHES IN U.S. HISTORY*

Rank Matchup Viewership Date

1. Manchester City-Arsenal 2.6 million April 19, 2026

2. Manchester City-Arsenal 2.6 million March 31, 2024

3. Manchester United-Arsenal 2.5 million August 17, 2025

4. Arsenal-Manchester United 2.3 million Jan. 22, 2023

5. Liverpool-Arsenal 2.3 million Dec. 23, 2023

*English-language Spanish-language (all matches on NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo)

Manchester City-Arsenal was also the final match that in-person supporters experienced at the Premier League Mornings Live Fan Fest last weekend in Tampa Bay, where more than 15,000 fans attended the 12th fan festival presented by NBC Sports and the Premier League.

NBC Sports' studio team of host Rebecca Lowe and analysts Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe and Tim Howard broadcast Premier League Mornings Live presented by Barclays from the event on Saturday and Sunday.

ESPN Opens NBA Playoffs with Most-Watched Playoff Game of Opening Weekend

ESPN tipped off the opening weekend of the NBA Playoffs presented by Google in strong fashion, delivering the most watched NBA game of the weekend, according to Nielsen. Saturday's Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers matchup on ABC averaged 5.2 million viewers, peaking at 6.4 million viewers during the 11 p.m. ET quarter hour.

Studio coverage

ESPN's Saturday studio programming also generated strong viewership, with Inside the NBA averaging 3.1 million viewers and NBA Tip Off averaging 1.5 million viewers.

ESPN's NBA advertising business shows strong cross-platform momentum

The NBA continues to be a driver for Disney's advertising business with

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