The NHL season opens this week following its strongest season in the 30+ years we’ve been tracking fandom on Sports Poll™.
During 2025-26, 43% of Americans 12+ identified as NHL fans (123.4 million). It was the fourth straight season with an increase, and fandom is up 10% since 2021-22.
Why is interest increasing?
One factor is hockey’s growing presence in pop culture over the past few seasons. There are now two hit TV series that feature hockey in “Heated Rivalry” (HBO Max) and “Off Campus” (Amazon Prime). Both were adaptations of book series where hockey romance has become a popular genre of its own. NHL fandom is up 14% with females since 2021-22.
International events have provided a showcase for the sport.
The 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 ended with Canada defeating the U.S. in the most-watched hockey game ever on ESPN. A year later, NHL players returned to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, and the U.S. defeated Canada for its first gold medal since 1980. NHL fandom continued to rise after the Olympics, reaching 45% during the postseason.
As we showed earlier this year, success of teams outside the traditional “hockey belt” (including four Stanley Cup champions from Florida and one from North Carolina since 2020) has also helped drive the sport’s growth nationally.
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Sports Poll by SSRS™ is conducted continuously throughout the year and includes a nationally representative sample of more than 24,000 Americans each year.
