NBA viewership is trending above two years ago thanks in large part to the resurgent Golden State Warriors.
NBA regular season games are averaging 1.55 million viewers so far this season, up 8% from the comparable point two years ago. At the same point last year, the season had not yet begun.
Tuesday’s Warriors-Suns game, a matchup of the league’s two best records, averaged 2.38 million viewers on TNT — the second-largest audience of the season behind Warriors-Lakers on Opening Night (3.39M). Golden State has now played in the top three, four of the top five, five of the top seven and six of the top nine games this season.
Excluding Opening Night games — including Opening Night of the “bubble” — Phoenix’s win delivered the largest regular season audience on TNT in nearly two years (12/19/19 Lakers-Bucks: 2.8M). Viewership soared 126% from the comparable Trail Blazers-Clippers game in 2019 (1.05M).
The strong performance no doubt contributed to the NBA moving Friday’s rematch between the teams onto ESPN, replacing a previously-scheduled Clippers-Lakers game. The Lakers have been given a replacement ESPN appearance on December 17 against Minnesota.
Earlier Tuesday, TNT averaged 1.75 million for Knicks-Nets, peaking at 2.7 million from 9:45-10 PM ET — up 129% from 2019 (Mavericks-Pelicans: 765K). The full doubleheader averaged 2.1 million, marking TNT’s most-watched doubleheader (outside of Opening Night) since the previously noted night in 2019 when it aired Lakers-Bucks.
TNT is now averaging 1.6 million viewers for the NBA season, up 29% from the same point in 2019 (1.3M). The network has benefited handsomely from its decision to shift early season doubleheaders from Thursdays opposite the NFL to Tuesdays. The Tuesday games have averaged 1.7 million, up 37% from the comparable Thursday windows in ’19 (1.2M).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 12.1, network PR]
