The U.S. Women's Hockey Team's dramatic 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the gold-medal game on February 19 set a new record as the most-watched women's hockey game ever, averaging 5.3 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock, with a peak of 7.7 million during overtime, according to NBC Sports.
That high-stakes matchup, combined with Alysa Liu's gold-medal-winning performance in the women's figure skating free skate, drove NBCUniversal's largest Winter Olympics weekday audience since the 2014 Sochi Games. Preliminary Nielsen data and Adobe Analytics showed an average of 26.7 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBCU digital platforms, and USA Network for the combined afternoon (Milan Prime: 2-5 p.m. ET) and primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) windows.
Through Thursday, February 19, the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics averaged 24.1 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal digital platforms, and Versant's USA Network and CNBC platforms.
This made it the most-watched Winter Games at that stage since the 2014 Sochi Olympics, with viewership up 93% from the equivalent point in the 2022 Beijing Games (12.5 million).