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

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. 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

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, 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

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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.

Notes

References

External links

NBA Finals TV Ratings, 1974-2008

NBA 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