The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is riding the wave from the global spotlight on women’s hockey during the 2026 Olympics.
Sixty-one PWHL athletes competed in the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, putting up a competitive 18-day tournament that ended in victory for the U.S. team. In the lead-up to the high-profile gold-medal game, experts had told Global News that the Olympic stage was a venue to “take the PWHL global in a different way” and see whether new interest could be sustained.
There are early indications that Olympic glow isn’t fading, the league says.
In an emailed statement to Global News, the PWHL said Feb. 22 to 28 was its largest home venue ticket sales week since it expanded to eight teams in April 2025.
In addition, the PWHL’s website traffic was “almost six times higher” during the Olympic period compared with a typical non-PWHL game period, while “73 per cent of website traffic represented new users visiting thepwhl.com for the first time during the Olympics.”
On YouTube, PWHL video views “increased 200% over the Olympic period,” suggesting that fans wanted to stay engaged with the players through the league’s channels.
The PWHL also reported to Global News that during the month of February, merchandise sales increased 101 per cent compared with the season-to-date trend before the Olympics.
Cheri Bradish, a sports business professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the data makes sense.
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“It’s not surprising we see those numbers,” she said. “Those global touchpoints like the Olympics really help grow the game, and it grows the profile of the individual players.
“We’re in the third season of the PWHL, and at the end of the day, it’s indicative of the growth and interest in the league from a fandom perspective.”
The league also reported that the 61 Olympians in Milan collectively increased their social media followings by 38 per cent and more than 760,000 followers from puck drop in Italy through Feb. 25.
The league announced Thursday that games in Madison Square Garden in New York City and TD Garden in Boston are sold out — the first time PWHL teams will play in these arenas.
The New York Sirens will host the Seattle Torrent on April 4 at Madison Square Garden, while the Boston Fleet will take on the Montreal Victoire on April 11 at TD Garden. These matchups also represent the largest home game attendance for both the Fleet and the Sirens.
Amy Scheer, PWHL executive vice-president of business operations, said the league is seeing a “historic season.”
“Playing for the first time at these two world-class arenas will be another step in what has already been a historic season for our league, and the atmosphere for fans and players alike will be nothing short of incredible,” she said in a statement.
The PWHL also experienced sold-out crowds in three of the first four games in its Canadian markets post-Olympics, in Ottawa (8,572) Saturday at TD Place, Montreal (10,172) Sunday at Place Bell and Toronto (8,671) Tuesday at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
While not an official sell-out, Vancouver’s crowd of 13,264 on Sunday represented the highest Canadian attendance following the Olympics and exceeded the Goldeneyes’ home average at Pacific Coliseum.
A new U.S. attendance record was also set last Friday, with 17,335 fans attending the Toronto Sceptres and Torrent matchup at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.
Bradish said the heightened tempo the league is experiencing was present before the Olympics began.
“This isn’t just a moment in time, this is a movement in time,” she said.
“Statistics and analysis have shown us that this will be a sustained growth, and that’s the way of building a business model, not just necessarily a halo of the Olympics. I think we know strategically that we’re beyond that level, it’s bigger and broader than that.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.