The NBA crossed the ten million viewer threshold for the first time in two years with a down-to-the-wire Game 4 between the Bucks and Suns.
Wednesday’s Suns-Bucks NBA Finals Game 4 averaged a 5.3 rating and 10.25 million viewers on ABC, surpassing Game 2 of the series last Thursday (5.1, 9.38M) to rank as the league’s highest rated and most-watched game since 2019. The Suns-Bucks series accounts for the three largest NBA audiences in the past two years.
Milwaukee’s narrow win, which peaked with 12.56 million from 11:15-11:30 PM ET, delivered the fifth-largest sports audience (excluding football) since the industry went dark in March of last year. It trails only the clinching Game 6 of last year’s World Series (12.70M), this year’s Kentucky Derby (14.37M), Gonzaga-UCLA in the Final Four (14.94M) and Baylor-Gonzaga in the National Championship (16.92M).
Viewership increased 35% from Lakers-Heat in the “bubble” last October (7.62M) but declined 20% from Warriors-Raptors on a Friday night in June 2019 (12.79M). The 20% drop from 2019, while sizable, is the smallest gap of the series. Game 1 declined 36% and Games 2 and 3 by 32%.
The NBA Finals is now averaging 9.31 million viewers through four games, up 34% from last year, but the second-lowest four-game average for the Finals since 2007 (Spurs-Cavaliers: 9.29M).
Game 4 pulled a series-high 3.5 rating in adults 18-49, per The Hollywood Reporter, television’s highest non-football rating in the demographic since the Academy Awards in February of last year. It cruised past this year’s Oscars in the demo (2.1).
For the third-straight game, the NBA Finals averaged more viewers than the corresponding game of last year’s World Series. Game 4 of the Fall Classic, which aired on a college football Saturday but in its usual time of year, averaged 9.33 million.
Locally, Game 4 averaged series-high ratings of 29.6 in Milwaukee and 25.4 in Phoenix — the highest for any NBA game in those markets since 2001 and 2000, respectively.
Most-watched (non-football) sporting events since 2019
[Nielsen estimates from ESPN, Hollywood Reporter 7.15]
