A pair of Game 7s gave the NBA its two largest audiences of the playoffs, and one of its top early round audiences in the past nine years.
Saturday’s Bucks-Nets NBA second round playoff Game 7 averaged 6.91 million viewers on TNT, marking the league’s eighth-largest early round playoff audience since 2012 — and the third-largest on cable.
Milwaukee’s overtime win ranks as the most-watched game of the posteason thus far and the second-most watched of the season overall. A Mavericks-Lakers game on Christmas Day still holds the top spot with 7.01 million. Since the NBA returned from hiatus 11 months ago, it ranks sixth among all games behind only four in last fall’s NBA Finals and Mavericks-Lakers.
On Sunday, Hawks-Sixers Game 7 averaged 6.16 million on TNT — ranking second for the postseason and third for the season overall. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Game 7 averaged a 13.22 rating in Atlanta, the nation’s #7 television market.
Both games comfortably outdrew last year’s second round Game 7s in the “bubble” (Nuggets-Clippers: 5.43M; Raptors-Celtics: 4.69M). Compared to the second round Game 7s in 2019, Bucks-Nets could not quite match a Sunday night Sixers-Raptors game on TNT (6.94M), but topped a Sunday afternoon Blazers-Nuggets game on ABC (6.34M). Hawks-Sixers trailed both 2019 matchups.
Bucks-Nets drew a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49, ranking third for the year in the demo — excluding football — behind college basketball’s national championship in April (4.2) and a much-hyped celebrity interview on CBS in March (2.7). Hawks-Sixers pulled a 2.3. By comparison, the April 25 Academy Awards had a 2.1.
The Game 7s were television’s two most-watched primetime programs of the week on any network and comfortably topped the final round of golf’s U.S. Open on NBC (5.67M, per John Ourand of Sports Business Journal).
In other action, Friday’s Jazz-Clippers Game 6 averaged 4.66 million on ESPN — the network’s top audience of the postseason thus far. Viewership declined just 1% from last year’s comparable Celtics-Raptors Game 7 in the “bubble” (4.69M) but fell a steeper 36% from Warriors-Rockets Game 6 in 2019 (7.33M).
Earlier in the night, Sixers-Hawks Game 6 drew 4.34 million — up 69% from Nuggets-Clippers Game 5 in the “bubble” (2.56M). There was no comparable window in ’19.
Shifting to the conference finals, Sunday’s Clippers-Suns Game 1 averaged just 4.52 million on ABC — actually down 8% from Game 1 of last year’s Nuggets-Lakers West Finals in the “bubble,” a Friday night game in September on TNT (4.92M). Viewership fell a steeper 38% from Blazers-Warriors Game 1 on ESPN in 2019 (7.32M). Keep in mind the game aired opposite the previously-mentioned final round of the U.S. Open, marking the third ABC game this postseason to face a competing marquee sporting event (previously the PGA Championship and Indianapolis 500).
Through the second round, the NBA Playoffs is averaging 3.50 million viewers — up 39% from the “bubble” but down 8% from 2019.
Most-watched early round NBA playoff games since 2012
[Nielsen estimates from Spoiler TV 6.22, AJC 6.21, John Ourand/Twitter 6.22]
