This is a list of
television ratings for
NBA Finals in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, based on
Nielsen viewing data. The highest rated and most watched NBA Finals series was the
1998 NBA Finals between the
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...
and
Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...
, which averaged an 18.7 rating / 33 share and 29.04 million viewers on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
. That series also featured the highest rated and most watched NBA Finals game, as the Sunday night averaged a 22.3 rating / 38 share and 35.89 million viewers. The
1987 NBA Finals
The 1987 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1986–87 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference ...
between the
Los Angeles Lakers and
Boston Celtics was the highest rated and most watched NBA Finals series on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, averaging a 15.9 rating / 32 share and 24.12 million viewers. Game 7 of the
1988 NBA Finals
The 1988 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1987–88 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference ...
registered the network's highest rated and most watched NBA game with a 21.2 rating / 37 share
The
2015 NBA Finals
The 2015 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2014–15 season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference
champion Golden State Warriors defeated the Eastern Confe ...
between the
Golden State Warriors and
Cleveland Cavaliers was the highest rated NBA Final series on
ABC averaging an 11.6 rating / 21 share and 19.94 million viewers. The
2017 NBA Finals
The 2017 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2016–17 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors defeated the defending NBA champio ...
featuring the same two teams was the most watched NBA Final series on
ABC averaging an 11.3 rating / 22 share and 20.38 million viewers. Game 7 of the
2016 NBA Finals
The 2016 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2015–16 season and conclusion of the 2016 playoffs. The Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the defending NBA champion and ...
registered the network's highest rated and most watched NBA game with an average 15.8 rating / 29 share and 31.02 million viewers. It was the first
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
game to draw more than 30 million average viewers in 18 years, and only the seventh non-
NFL sports telecast (excluding the
Olympics) to have done so since 1998.
The
2019 NBA Finals
The 2019 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2018–19 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In the best-of-seven playoff series held from May 30 through June 13, 2019, the Eastern C ...
between the
Golden State Warriors and the
Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...
had a drop in American viewership. Analysts cited the presence of a Canadian team (Canadian viewership does not count towards U.S. Nielsen ratings, leading to only one U.S. home market being reflected in viewership), as a factor in the drop. At the same time, the presence of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals boosted Canadian viewership to record levels.
For the
2020 NBA Finals
The 2020 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2019–20 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff series, the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Laker ...
, the ratings dropped to a historic low, with one of the games drawing only 5.9 million viewers.
The average viewers figure over 6 games was 7.5 million, which is a 51% decline from the previous year. Some have claimed this was due to the players' political activism; others have claimed this was due to the finals being played out of season caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
even though more audience stayed at home, as other sports such as the
NHL playoffs
The Stanley Cup playoffs (french: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the league champion and the winner ...
and the
MLB playoffs
The Major League Baseball postseason is an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season. Starting in 2022, the playoffs for each league— American and National—consist of two best-of-three ...
also showed a significant decline in ratings.
Single game superlatives (1987–present)
Highest rated
#
1998 Game 6 – 22.3
# 1988 Game 7 – 21.5
# 1993 Game 6 – 20.3
Lowest rated
# 2020 Game 3 – 3.1
# 2020 Game 2 – 3.6
# 2020 Game 1 – 4.1
Most watched
#
1998 Game 6 – 50.856 million
# 1993 Game 6 – 45.878 million
#
2016 Game 7 – 40.002 million
Least watched
# 2020 Game 3 – 5.94 million
# 2020 Game 2 – 6.61 million
# 2020 Game 1 – 7.41 million
Game-by-game breakdown by year (1974–present)
Figures are expressed as Rating/Share. Rating represents the percentage of US TV households that watched the game, Share represents the percentage of TV sets in use that were tuned to the game. Note that game-by-game viewership for pre-2000 series were generally unavailable.
See also
*
Super Bowl television ratings
*
Stanley Cup Finals television ratings
*
World Series television ratings
Audience measurement by Nielsen Media Research, commonly referred to as Nielsen ratings, has provided World Series television ratings since at least 1963. Key measurements are ''ratings'', the percentage of all U.S. television-equipped household ...
*
MLS Cup television ratings
Notes
References
External links
NBA Finals TV Ratings, 1974-2008NBA Finals Numbers Game
{{National Basketball Association on television
National Basketball Association Finals
National Basketball Association on television
ESPN
ABC Sports
CBS Sports
Basketball on NBC
Lists of most popular media