The NHL may not have the riches of the NFL, the NBA or even MLB, but none of those leagues can touch its growth.

Hockey saw its average franchise value appreciate 44% in 2024, to $1.9 billion, far outpacing the increases in pro football (11%), basketball (15%) and baseball (4%) this year, according to Forbes estimates. All 32 NHL franchises climbed at least 21%, and their five-year surge of 187% again tops the other three major North American leagues’ growth, as well as global soccer’s.

Of course, the NHL’s fastest-growing team, up an astounding 140% year over year, is undeniably a special case: Forbes now values Utah Hockey Club at $1.2 billion after pegging the franchise at $500 million in 2023, when the team was playing in a 5,000-seat college arena as the Arizona Coyotes. And high-percentage growth is certainly easier when you’re starting with smaller numbers. The NHL’s most valuable team—the Toronto Maple Leafs, who lead the ranking for the second straight year at $3.8 billion—is worth less than all 32 franchises from the NFL, 18 from the NBA and four from MLB.

But those caveats alone can’t account for the league-wide spike. (For one thing, Major League Soccer, with an average team value of $658 million, rose just 14% this year.)

One easy explanation: NHL teams are making more money. Average revenue was $225 million last season, a 12% increase from the prior year’s $201 million, and average operating income climbed 5% to $53 million, according to Forbes estimates. Every team was profitable except Arizona, and that franchise’s fortunes are expected to change in Utah.

As league-wide attendance hit a record 22.9 million last season, general ticket sales rose 6% to $1.8 billion, according to Forbes estimates, and teams’ luxury suite and club revenue collectively jumped 13%, crossing $1.2 billion. Even better, local (team-specific) sponsorship and advertising revenue leapt 19%, past $900 million, while the league-wide sponsor roster expanded to a record 74 brands.

One major factor driving that marketing influx has been the league’s digitally enhanced dasherboards, or DEDs, a virtual advertising product that was introduced during the 2022-23 season and allows broadcasters to replace the ads that are painted around rinks. The technology enables the league to target geographic audiences and sell specific “game parts”—for instance, a brand can sponsor a faceoff or an overtime period. Norwegian Cruise Line, which became the NHL’s first cruise line partner in October, is the presenting sponsor of the first goal of the game on ESPN and TNT broadcasts.

“When you combine the national and team levels, the digital dasherboards will surpass around $200 million this year,” says Joseph De Sousa, the NHL’s chief financial officer. “And that’s new revenue that didn’t exist before.”

Hockey’s soaring valuations have less to do with revenue, however, than with revenue multiples. The $1.8 billion price of the Tampa Bay Lightning in October’s sale was 8.2 times revenue while the $1.2 billion deal to transform the Coyotes into Utah Hockey Club came with a multiple of 9.8. Those numbers, reflecting investors’ appetite for sports teams, are resetting the hockey market after the Ottawa Senators sold for $950 million, or 7.4 times revenue, last year—and after the Pittsburgh Penguins sold for $875 million (4.7x) in 2021. On Forbes’ new list of the NHL’s most valuable teams, the spread of multiples reaches all the way up to 12.3 for the Maple Leafs, with an average of 8.5, helping every team secure a valuation of $1 billion for the first time.

The enthusiasm is particularly notable given the uncertainty around local media rights amid the struggles of Diamond Sports Group. With the regional sports network operator emerging from bankruptcy in November, some teams have negotiated new deals with their local RSN for lower fees. Others—such as the Anaheim Ducks, the Dallas Stars and Utah Hockey Club—are shifting to direct-to-consumer streaming or free over-the-air broadcasts, or both. At stake are potentially tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

At the same time, local media represents a shrinking slice of the pie, with league-wide hockey-related revenue projected to reach $6.6 billion this season, and there are other reasons for optimism. The NHL expects its next Canadian broadcast deal, beginning in 2026, to at least double, and possibly even triple, its current rights fee, and its U.S. television rights will hit the market two years later. The league has also leaned into player marketing in a way it hasn’t always in the past, betting it can attract new fans with initiatives like the Amazon Prime Video docuseries Faceoff, which is returning for a second season next year.

And the NHL is temporarily replacing its All-Star Game in February with the 4 Nations Face-Off, the league’s re-entry to international competition ahead of the 2026 Olympics and the 2028 World Cup. Hopes are high that the tournaments could spur new interest in the sport.

“We know our fans want it, our broadcast partners are highly interested in it, and most importantly our players very much want it,” says Stephen McArdle, the NHL’s chief operating officer.

Forbes’ team valuations are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) and include the economics of each team’s current arena deal but not the value of the real estate itself. Revenue and operating income, which are estimated for the 2023-24 season, are adjusted for revenue sharing and are net of arena revenue that goes toward arena debt service.

Team values are rounded to the nearest $25 million, and estimated operating income is rounded to the nearest $1 million. All figures are in U.S. dollars based on the average U.S.-Canada exchange rate during the 2023-24 season.

The information used to compile Forbes’ valuations primarily came from team executives, sports bankers, media consultants and public documents, such as arena lease agreements and bond documents.