NHL sets regular-season attendance record in 2024-25

It has been reportedly another banner year for the National Hockey League.

On Friday, the NHL announced that it recorded the highest total attendance for a single regular season in the league’s history.

Following the conclusion of the 2024-25 regular season, which saw a total of 1,312 games played across the board, the total attendance eclipsed 23-million for the first time in the league’s 108-year history. A total of 23,014,458 fans attended games this year, a figure that represents 96.9 percent of capacity.

It’s the third consecutive season that the league has broken its own attendance record. In 2022-23, 22,346,532 patrons saw the fastest game on ice, with another 22,873,142 packed arenas the following season.

There were many factors that led to the uptick in ticket sales. 94,751 packed Ohio Stadium for the 2025 Stadium Series game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings on March 1. Also, large crowds came to watch the NHL Global Series games at O2 Arena in Prague, Czechia and Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland.

In a release, the NHL was sure to point out that the regular-season totals did not include the 4 Nations Face-Off, which saw 135,977 fans attend the seven games between Boston and Montreal, averaging 19,425.

The team that led the bunch is the Montreal Canadiens. The team sold out each of its 41 home games this season, 21,105 per game. The packed house at the Bell Centre saw the Habs secure its first playoff berth in the 2021 season. Expect even greater attendance numbers in Montreal when thhe Canadiens take on the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs.

Speaking of the Capitals, the team based in the U.S. capital drew big crowds wherever they went, as people wanted to see Alex Ovechkin in person while he chased down Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record. A total of 17,255 packed UBS Arena saw Ovi set the new mark when he scored the 895th goal of his NHL career against the New York Islanders on April 6.