Sunday’s NHL Stadium Series in Tampa Bay was an all-out spectacle: pirates and treasure maps, plus the entrance of the Bruins in colonial patriots garb and the Lightning in full football uniforms. 

The over-the-top production—which included a shootout winner for the Lightning and a rare goalie fight—paid dividends for ESPN by becoming the most-watched NHL regular season game on cable. It delivered 2.1M viewers—a 30% increase over last year’s Stadium Series between the Red Wings and Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium.

The matchup at the Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium was the second-ever outdoor game in Florida. The first came a month earlier when the Rangers and Panthers played the annual NHL Winter Classic at loanDepot Park in Miami. 

The viewership success of this year’s Stadium Series stands in stark contrast to the Jan. 2 Winter Classic, which drew only 1 million viewers for its broadcast on TNT, truTV, and HBO Max. That number is up 6% from last year, but the success is relative—the 2025 game at Wrigley Field between the Blues and Blackhawks marked an all-time low for the special event, failing to reach 1 million viewers. (The introduction of Nielson’s Big Data + Panel for viewership tracking also may have accounted for the ratings bounce this year.)

Timing has always been key for the NHL’s outdoor games, and the success of this year’s Stadium Series game shows how important a clear broadcast window is for these special events. The Feb. 1 date didn’t engage in a viewership tug-of-war with football, as it followed the end of the college season and seized the NFL’s week off in advance of the Super Bowl.

The Winter Classic is a different story, as it annually threads the needle among college football’s biggest bowl games. NHL event organizers told FOS last year that the 2025 game moved away from its traditional New Year’s Day slot to avoid the football competition, instead airing in a new window on New Year’s Eve. This year’s Winter Classic had to navigate similar challenges, especially with the Orange Bowl down the road at Hard Rock Stadium on New Year’s Day.

Next year’s Stadium Series, which will feature the Golden Knights versus the Stars at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., will air on Feb. 20, well after both football seasons wrap (although it will compete with NBA All-Star weekend). The 2027 Winter Classic ​​at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City will be in January; the exact date isn’t posted, but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has not ruled out a return to the New Year’s Day tradition—which will still, of course, compete with the height of college football action. 

The continued ratings differential between the two NHL games continues to raise the question of whether it makes sense to uphold hockey tradition for the Winter Classic date, or instead break the mold to secure coveted eyeballs as the league pushes for major growth.