The U.S. women's soccer team's win over Japan was also golden for NBC Sports Network on Thursday.
The cable network's coverage of Team USA's 2-1 win in the gold-medal game at Wembley Stadium netted a 2.74 national rating and 4.35 million viewers, according to Nielsen data, making the afternoon telecast the service's highest-rated and most-watched event ever. The match surpassed a couple of Stanley Cup Final Games that aired in 2010 and 2009 on the service then known as Versus, as well as the U.S. men's basketball team's win over Argentina in group play from London, which averaged 3.45 million watchers on Aug. 6.
Moreover, the Olympic futbol final, in which Carli Lloyd scored a pair and goalie Hope Solo made a game-saving deflection in the 83rd minutem drew 1.47 million streams on NBCOlympics.com, to rank as the most-streamed event in Games history. The matched topped the 1.46 million streams for the USA women's gymnastics all-around, gold-medal performance and the 1.29 million for Usain Bolt's defense of his gold from the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 100-meter race.
Most-Watched Events In NBC Sports Network History*
EVENTDATEVIEWERS
1. Team USA-Japan Soccer Gold Medal Match8/9/124.350 million
2. NHL Stanley Cup Final Gm. 3: Flyers-Blackhawks6/2/103.600 million
3. NHL Stanley Cup Final Gm. 4: Red Wings-Penguins6/4/093.448 million
4. U.S. Men's Basketball vs. Argentina8/6/123.330 million
5. Olympics - Including Rowing Qualifying7/28/123.140 million
6. NHL Stanley Cup Final Gm. 4: Flyers-Blackhawks6/4/103.126 million
7. NHL Stanley Cup Final Gm. 3: Red Wings-Penguins6/2/092.955 million
8. Team USA-Canada Semi-Final Soccer Match8/6/122.918 million
9. NHL Stanley Cup Final Gm. 3: Canucks-Bruins6/6/112.757 million
10. NHL Stanley Cup Final Gm. 4: Canucks-Bruins6/8/112.714 million
*NBC Sports Network was rebranded from Versus in January 2012.
