Blues-Bruins on NBC delivers most-watched Stanley Cup Final Game 1 in four years

NBC Sports’ presentation of Game 1 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins on NBC averaged a total audience delivery of 5.380 million viewers, making it the most-watched Game 1 in four years and NBC Sports’ third-most watched Game 1 since it began broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final in 2006, according to Fast National data from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

The Bruins come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Blues at TD Garden in Boston averaged 5.380 million viewers across NBC, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app (8:09-11:01 p.m. ET), up 2% vs. last year’s Game 1 (WSH-VGK, 5.288 million) and up 9% vs. 2017 (NSH-PIT, 4.925 million). It trails only two other Game 1s in NBC Sports’ 14-year history broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final (BOS-CHI, 6.315 million, 2013; CHI-TBL, 5.586 million, 2015).

Game 1 is expected to propel NBC to win Monday night in total viewers, and the key adult 18-49 and adult 25-54 demographics. The game delivered a 2.87 HH rating and 5.264 million TV-only viewers.

Digitally, Blues-Bruins delivered the most-streamed Stanley Cup Final Game 1 ever and the fourth-most streamed NHL game on record, with an average minute audience (AMA) of 115,500 viewers and 19.9 million live minutes, up 37% and 24%, respectively, vs. 2018.

St. Louis led all markets with a 29.0 local rating, NBC Sports’ highest NHL rating on record in the market. Boston scored a 25.2 rating. NBC was the No. 1 network in both markets during the game.

Buffalo was fourth, with an 8.4 rating.