Czechs broke records everywhere during the World Championships. In arenas, on TV screens and on the internet. Only Nagano is higher

At a time of debate about the number one national sport, ice hockey has made a strong claim to fame. The past World Championship in the Czech Republic brought all life back to a halt in the country for a while. Just as it did in Nagano in ’82. According to statistics, there hasn’t been a more watched sporting event in our country since then.

The younger generations know it only from stories. To this day, those who remember the February 1998 Olympic final in Nagano tell how life in our country came to a standstill. On that Sunday morning, when the national team played the final against Russia, there was only hockey, nothing more.

The spectacular fresh success of the Czech hockey players on the domestic scene may not have surpassed the memorable Nagano, but at least it came close. Once again, thousands of people gathered in public spaces to forget their everyday worries and pull together like their favourites on the ice.

Hockey is a huge phenomenon in the Czech Republic, there is no question about it. Even during the poorer years, when hockey players barely reached the semi-finals, interest in the sport did not stagnate. This is evidenced, for example, by the attendance figures of the Czech top competition, which (with the exception of Covid) have been growing year by year.

A record wherever you look

As for the attendance of the championship in the arenas themselves, a lot has already been written about that, so just for the sake of argument. A total of 797,727 spectators attended the 2024 World Championships in Prague and Ostrava, which is also a new all-time record. The previous one from 2015 was already broken by the fans at the first semi-final match.

Other huge numbers fell at the TV screens. Since the first game of the Czech hockey team against Finland, hockey has been the most watched programme on TV. As the tournament progressed, and as our hockey players progressed, those numbers grew each game.

Robert Záruba, chief commentator of CT Sport, stated on his profile on the social network X that 4 813 000 thousand viewers watched the match. ” This number does not include the squares, sports bars, restaurants and other common events,” Záruba said.

He said Sunday’s final was the most watched TV show in the Czech Republic in 2024, the most watched sports show in the Czech Republic since the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, and the most watched show in the history of the ČT Sport channel. In other words, the successful campaign of the Czech hockey players on their home territory broke all TV records.

If the current numbers can be compared to anything, it is the victorious hockey final of the 2010 World Championship. That was still broadcast by CT 2, so that’s why CT Sport has the new most-watched broadcast in its eighteen-year history. The final surpassed the high of the 2014 Winter Olympics eight-final against Slovakia.

Records were also broken on the internet

Of course, the published data does not include any pirated streams on various unofficial platforms. Other viewers watched the broadcast on bookmakers’ websites, for example. In reality, the final figure could be much higher.

The operators of various social networks also saw significantly increased activity. And that’s not all. NIX.CZ (a company bringing together Czech and foreign ISPs to interconnect their networks) came up with another interesting fact.

During Sunday’s final between the Czech Republic and Switzerland, it recorded a new record in data transfer. At one point, it recorded a data transfer rate of 3.14 terabits per second. The Czechs thus broke the internet record set three days earlier during the quarterfinal against the USA.

Source: Robert Záruba, CT Sport, NIX.CZ