“Heated Rivalry”: the creation of a pop culture classic

At the end of 2025, “Heated Rivalry,” the latest sports romance show, was released on Crave, a Canadian streaming service. After the trailer blew up in popularity, it was snagged by HBO Max to distribute globally. Since then, the show has become one of the most talked-about shows in the past few months. But what about this show is different, and what made it so culturally iconic?

The show is based on the second book in a well-known M/M — also known as male/male or male with male, used to denote a media with two romantically involved men — book series called “Game Changers,” written by author Rachel Reid. The plot focuses on two professional hockey players who are rivals in the National Hockey League who’re hiding a romantic, spicy affair behind closed doors, affecting both their lives and their relationship with each other. While this is not the first time a gay relationship has been shown on screen, or even the first M/M romance show, “Heated Rivalry” featured many explicit sex scenes between the two romantic leads. 

The project was primarily funded by the Canada Media Fund and only had a budget of just under $5 million CAD, or $3.6 million USD per episode. With this tiny budget, the production cast mostly unknown actors, was filmed nearly entirely in Hamilton, Ontario, and finished filming in 37 days. 

Finally, was its popularity. Crave only has around four million monthly subscribers, but after the original trailer for the show went viral and became internationally distributed the show became global. After the release of the  sixth and last episode of the season, the amount of time spent streaming the show was over 324 million minutes.The show’s fifth episode, “I’ll Believe in Anything,” was ranked as second on IMDb’s highest rated episodes of all time, and remains at the 12th spot as of Feb. 8, 2026 . 

Ultimately, the show's popularity was due to a combination of incredible directing, writing and performances, which together created a compelling love story that resonated with the masses. The show has already been renewed for a second season, which will cover the sixth book of the “Game Changers” series, continuing the story.

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