Despite airing on ESPN2 opposite a historic game, Kobe Bryant‘s NBA finale crushed that of Michael Jordan thirteen years earlier.
Wednesday’s Jazz/Lakers NBA regular season game had a 2.1 final rating and 3.5 million viewers on ESPN2, the largest audience NBA ever on the network, regular season or playoffs. The previous high was 3.4 million for a Blazers/Spurs playoff game in 2014, which still holds the top spot in ratings (2.2).
The Lakers’ win, in which Bryant scored an unexpected 60 points, trailed competing coverage of the Warriors’ record-setting 73rd win on ESPN (2.3, 3.6M). Bryant’s farewell had a larger peak audience, with 5.4 million watching from 1 AM ET to the conclusion — nearly a million more than the Warriors’ peak of 4.2 million earlier in the night.
Bryant’s final game also outdrew the Warriors’ record-setter among adults 18-49 (1.7 to 1.6) and adults 18-34 (2.0 to 1.75). All comparisons come with the caveat that ESPN’s Warriors coverage was blacked out in the Bay Area, where viewers watched in droves on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.
Compared to Michael Jordan‘s final NBA game in 2003, which aired on ESPN absent any notable competition, ratings and viewership for Wednesday’s game were higher by 75% (2.1 to 1.2) and 138% (3.5M to 1.5M), respectively.
For the season, Jazz/Lakers scored the fifth-largest audience on cable behind Spurs/Rockets on Christmas (3.9M), the Warriors’ aforementioned win #73 (3.65M), Warriors/Cavaliers on Martin Luther King Day (3.62M) and Thunder/Warriors in March (3.61M). Regardless of network, it ranked 13th.
(Wed. numbers via ESPN Media Zone, Programming Insider, ShowBuzz Daily)
