NHL Business Blog: NHL.com Records All-Time Traffic High

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

NHL.com Records All-Time Traffic High

NHL.com set an all-time record for traffic since the launch of NHL Network Online. Traffic is almost double what it was before the launch on April 9 as it has increased a reported 75%. The NHL Network Online also drew a whopping 7 million page views in its first week (the week of April 13) alone.

Also, interestingly Alexa.com is reporting that traffic has increased significantly to NHL.com, mostly in the United States. NHL.com currently ranks 640th in the web, with 44.7% of users
coming from the United States, 37.4% coming from Canada and the rest coming from abroad (mainly Europe). This contrasts with earlier on in the year and past years where Alexa.com reported that the majority of traffic came from Canada. This may be due to the launch of NHL Network Online, but this may also be due to the changed rankings system used at Alexa. In the past they used to rank sites based on visits from users who had installed the Alexa Toolbar on their browsers. Now they compile rankings based on data from a number of sources. They're not revealing which sources or how they do it but that's what they say.

Also, another reason why traffic may have spiked, is the presence of many big market US hockey teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. NHL fans usually tune out the playoffs unless their teams are involved. NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Business and Media, (and former Cleveland Browns President) John Collins recently said that 80% of fan viewership is determined by whether their teams are in the postseason, and that 50% of the NHL's most avid fans will not watch the Stanley Cup Finals, unless their team is involved. With the Rangers, Flyers, Red Wings, Penguins, Stars and Sharks still involved, this has probably driven a ton of fan interest, that probably spilled over to NHL.com.

NHL Network Online is a cutting edge portal that features archived game highlights from the Stanley Cup playoffs, as well as podcasts, live coverage of league events such as the amateur draft, behind-the-scenes features, and links to XM Radio's NHL Live show. It replaced NHL TV as the main portal for NHL.com.