The Finnish team progressed to the final on January 5 in front of their home crowd in Helsinki, with their thrilling 4-3 overtime victory over Russia watched by huge numbers on broadcaster YLE.

On average, 1.26 million people in the host nation also tuned in to watch Finland’s semi-final clash with Sweden, while their quarter-final triumph over Canada was seen by an average of 1.132 million fans.

Finland’s victory at the tournament means they have now won two out of the last three editions, having triumphed in 2014, while they were also successful in 1987 and 1998.

The figures reflect the huge interest in the tournament across the Scandinavian country, with a record total of 215,225 fans having attended matches at an average of 7,174 per game.

Malmo 2014 had held the previous attendance record, with 144,268 watching games in Sweden with an average of 4,653.

Meanwhile, figures from Canada show that their matches were watched by 16 per cent more people than at Malmo 2014, despite their country’s early exit at the hands of the hosts.

Their 4-2 defeat against the United States on December 26 is to date the top rated ice hockey match on any network in the 2015 to 2016 broadcasting year, having averaged 2.88 million viewers, with 6.6 million unique viewers.

Additionally, 2.7 million unique Canadian viewers watched the gold medal game, which saw it become the most-watched World Junior Championship game without Canada for the broadcaster TSN.

The network became the most watched in Canada on December 26, 29 and January 2 as a result of viewership of the Championship.