“Heated Rivalry” has been one of the breakout success shows at the end of 2025 and into the new year. To contextualize this a bit, the steamy romance series peaked as the #2 most in-demand show globally since it premiered on the Canadian streaming platform Crave on Nov. 28. Additionally, the show reached 95 times the average series demand globally, the highest global peak demand for a Canadian show since 2020, beating out the consistently high-demand children’s show “PAW Patrol” and “Schitt’s Creek.”
Comparing the premiere of “Heated Rivalry” to the finale season of “Schitt’s Creek,” we can see what an immediate success this show has been right from the puck drop. While it took about a month for the show to reach its peak demand globally as the show was rolled out in other countries and audiences outside of Canada discovered it, even in the first few days following its premiere, the show had higher global demand than “Schitt’s Creek” did at the start of its final season.
While we don’t yet have the numbers on what the financial performance of “Heated Rivalry” has been for streamers around the world, our Streaming Economics model can benchmark it against other Canadian shows that have been top performers to give some sense of its value since it is already outperforming some of the most globally popular series to come out of Canada in recent years.
From 2020 through 2025, we calculate that “Letterkenny” has generated over $125 million in streaming revenue for major global platforms. This has been mainly driven by the show’s success in breaking through with American audiences on Hulu. In the same time, “Schitt’s Creek” has generated over $190M in global subscriber revenue for streaming platforms. It is important to note that the series finale was in April 2020, so this revenue has been generated almost entirely without new content premiering, underscoring the value that comes from a show with high rewatchability. “Heated Rivalry” is still unproven in this regard, and while it has already secured renewal for a second season, it remains to be seen if it can maintain a high level of interest over multiple seasons like “Schitt’s Creek.”
The timing of “Heated Rivalry” ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics presents an opportunity for both the show and the Olympics to benefit from increased interest in ice hockey. It is a well noted trend that the Olympics can drive interest and participation in sports that receive popular attention at the games every four years. This year, we may see a surge in interest around ice hockey, driven partly by the Olympics and partly by a steamy Canadian sports romance.
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