• by Wayne Friedman , June 12, 2017

The six-game 2017 Stanley Cup Final featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators gained nearly 20% in viewership over last year’s event -- also a six-game final.

NBC says the finals grew 19% to average a Nielsen 4.679 million overall TV viewers. The Pittsburgh Penguins won Game Six by a score of 2-0 to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998. The 2016 finals feature the Penguins and San Jose Sharks.

Game Six of this year’s finals pulled in a Nielsen preliminary 6.47 million TV viewers and a 2.1 average rating among 18-49 viewers on NBC on Sunday. Last year’s Game Six averaged a 1.6 18-49 rating.

NBC says when adding viewership from all TV platforms, including digital TV media platforms, the ‘Total Audience Delivery’ of the entire 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs -- 84 games on NBC/NBCSN/CNBC/USA Network --  grew 11% to average 1.387 million viewers.

In 2016, there were 89 games, averaging 1.253 million viewers.

NBC says its “Total Audience Delivery” metric measures consumption across multiple platforms, combining the ‘average minute audience ratings for TV and digital platforms.

The TV data came from the Nielsen Company and digital data from Adobe Analytics.