Team USA’s 2-1 overtime victory against Team Canada in the gold medal game at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on Sunday was the most-watched sporting event with a pre-9 a.m. ET start time on record in United States history.
The game delivered an average live audience of 18.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, which also made it NBC Sports’ second-most watched hockey game ever, behind only the gold medal game from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, a 3-2 overtime win for Canada against the United States.
The audience peaked at 26.0 million live viewers between 10:45 and 11 a.m. ET during the overtime period in which Jack Hughes scored the game-winning goal for the United States.
The Milano Cortina games were the first to feature NHL players since the 2014 Sochi Games. The victory gave the United States its first men’s ice hockey gold medal since 1980 and its first best-on-best tournament win since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
