By The Canadian Press

8.7 million Canadians watched end of men’s gold-medal hockey game at Olympics

Feb 24, 2026 | 8:56 AM

TORONTO — Nearly nine million Canadians watched the end of the men’s gold-medal hockey game, which CBC says was Canada’s most-watched moment at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

But it’s an apparent decline from Sochi 2014, the last time Canada’s men’s hockey team made it to the gold medal matchup, when CBC said 15 million Canadians tuned in to some portion of the game and average viewership hovered at 8.5 million.

CBC didn’t say how many people watched this year’s game in total, or what the average viewership throughout the game was: only that 8.7 million were tuned in for the final goal.

The broadcaster says roughly 30.5 million Canadians — about 73 per cent of the population — watched some portion of the Olympics on CBC’s English and French TV networks and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet and RDS.

The broadcaster says its online content received “89 million streams,” though the press release didn’t say how long someone had to watch for it to count as a stream.

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But it says viewers watched 42 million hours of content on CBC’s digital and streaming platforms, including CBC Gem.

CBC says the final moments of the gold medal men’s hockey game, when American player Jack Hughes scored the final goal in overtime, was the peak of Olympic viewership, while 5.1 million viewers watched the final minute of the men’s semifinal game over Czechia.

It says 4.22 million viewers watched the final minutes of the women’s gold medal hockey game, which the U.S. also won over Canada, and 3.1 million watched Canada win the gold medal in men’s curling over Great Britain.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2026.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press