The NBA scored its largest audience in months — and cable’s best first round playoff audience in two years — with Wednesday’s Game 7 nailbiter between the Rockets and Thunder.
Wednesday’s Thunder-Rockets first round NBA playoff Game 7 averaged 4.11 million viewers on ESPN, marking the most-watched opening round playoff game on cable in two years (2018 Cavaliers-Pacers Game 4: 6.07M) and the most-watched on ESPN in three (2017 Warriors-Blazers Game 3: 4.38M). Keep in mind it was ESPN’s first opening round Game 7 since 2003.
Houston’s narrow win delivered the largest NBA audience since Blazers-Lakers on January 31* (4.41M), comfortably topping the previous mark of 3.83 million for Lakers-Blazers Game 3 on ABC August 22.
It also delivered the largest sports audience on cable since the NFL Draft in April, topping the Yankees-Nationals Major League Baseball opener in July (4.01M).
Viewership increased 17% over the comparable window of last year’s playoffs, Game 2 of a Blazers-Nuggets second round series on TNT (3.51M). Last year’s game aired exclusively on TNT, while this year’s game co-existed with RSN coverage in both Houston and Oklahoma City.
The other first round Game 7 was less of a draw. Jazz-Nuggets averaged 3.39 million on ABC Tuesday night, down 24% from the comparable window on TNT last year (Celtics-Bucks: 4.45M) and ABC’s least-watched Game 7 since Bucks-Hawks on a Sunday afternoon in 2010 (3.06M). It also delivered the second-smallest primetime playoff audience ever on ABC, ahead of Celtics-Pacers Game 3 on a Friday last year (2.72M).
Compared to last year’s lone opening round Game 7 — a Saturday night Spurs-Nuggets game on TNT (3.49M) — Thunder-Rockets increased 18% and Jazz-Nuggets declined 3%. Both game sevens easily won their respective nights in the key young adult demographics, with Thunder-Rockets TV’s top program in adults 18-49 (1.7) since the season finale of “The Masked Singer” on FOX in May (2.3).
In other first round action, Rockets-Thunder Game 6 averaged 2.84 million on TNT Monday night, down 22% from Blazers-Nuggets Game 1 last year (3.64M).
Shifting to the semifinals, Games 1 and 2 of Heat-Bucks averaged 2.39 and 2.74 million viewers respectively on TNT Monday and ESPN Wednesday — ranking as the second and third-most watched playoff games outside of primetime thus far. A Sunday afternoon Clippers-Mavericks game averaged 3.39 million on ABC August 23.
Notably, five of the 11 most-watched NBA games since the season restarted August 1 have come since the league’s three-day suspension of play last week. As a caveat, as of Monday all Nielsen figures include out-of-home data.
Celtics-Raptors Game 2 averaged just 1.88 million on ESPN Tuesday, marking the least-watched second round game on any network in at least a decade. Its 5:30 PM ET start time was the earliest for any weekday semifinal game since 1991. No weekday playoff games began prior to 7 PM ET last year.
* The first Laker game since the death of Kobe Bryant.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 9.3, Tim Reynolds/Twitter 9.3]
