Hockey fever has consumed Las Vegas, with the Vegas Golden Knights making a run to the Stanley Cup Final and whatnot.
But when it comes to watching these games, everyone’s all in if they can’t be at T-Mobile Arena. Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, which was a 6-4 Vegas win over the Washington Capitals on Monday, resulted in a 28.1 rating in Las Vegas on NBC.
In short, that’s one in every two TVs that had Game 1 on NBC on Monday. Washington D.C. drew the second highest local rating at 16.02.
In an unsurprising turn of events, it’s the highest local rating for a Golden Knights game in Vegas, overtaking Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. That drew a 17.9.
Vegas and Washington also drew a national overnight rating of 3.72 from NBC, the highest for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final since the Chicago-Tampa Bay series in 2015. That’s a 7 percent uptick from last year’s Nashville-Pittsburgh final and a 36 percent increase from the San Jose-Pittsburgh series two years prior.
The narrative is well known to this point: Less than one year ago, the Golden Knights didn’t even have a player on their roster, and now they’re three wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup. But it’s another to see this city be enthralled with what’s happening this season. As the series goes on, it wouldn’t be shocking if that number continues to rise, especially if the Golden Knights inch closer to the Stanley Cup.
Hockey will never work in Las Vegas? That 28.1 says otherwise.