With all the ingredients of a highly-viewed series in place — a popular defending champion playing high-quality games against a rarely-seen underdog — Kings-Warriors continues to be the dominant draw of the NBA playoffs.
Sunday’s Kings-Warriors first round NBA playoff Game 4 averaged a 4.0 rating and 7.52 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest first round NBA playoff audience in 21 years — since NBC’s final first round game in 2002 (Lakers-Trail Blazers Game 3: 8.56M). The previous high during the current TV deal was 7.24 million for Warriors-Rockets Game 4 in 2016.
(As with all multi-year highs, keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen’s national viewership estimates until three years ago. It is likely that the 2016 game, which had a higher household rating of 4.5, would have had more viewers all things being equal.)
Most-watched first round NBA playoff games since 2002
Golden State’s narrow win, which peaked with 10.41 million viewers, increased 24% in ratings and 28% in viewership from Warriors-Nuggets in the same window last year (3.2, 5.86M). Viewership for all four Kings-Warriors games has increased double-digits over last year’s equivalent windows, each of which featured Warriors-Nuggets.
Game 4 also ranks as the most-watched NBA telecast this season, topping Game 1 of the series the previous weekend (6.26M). The series accounts for four of the ten largest NBA audiences this season, along with three Christmas games, Lakers-Grizzlies Games 1 and 3 and Clippers-Suns Game 1.
Earlier in the day, Cavaliers-Knicks Game 4 averaged a 2.3 and 3.98 million — up 9% in ratings and 11% in viewership from Bucks-Bulls a year ago (2.1, 3.57M). Friday’s Game 3 on ABC averaged a 1.4 and 2.48 million, up 24% and 28% respectively from Bucks-Bulls (1.2, 1.93M). Keep in mind the Friday game coexisted with local RSN coverage and faced competing NBA playoff games on ESPN.
Grizzlies-Lakers Game 3 was the weekend’s top game on cable with a 2.2 and 4.23 million on ESPN Saturday night, up 8% in ratings and 14% in viewership from Grizzlies-Timberwolves in the same window last year (2.1, 3.70M). Bucks-Heat Game 3 led in with a 1.7 and 3.20 million, down 31% from last year’s higher-profile Celtics-Nets game (2.5, 4.62M). Figures for Monday’s Game 4 of both series will be reported later Tuesday.
TNT’s top game of the weekend was Sunday’s Celtics-Hawks Game 4 at a 2.0 and 3.83 million, up 8% and 10% respectively from Heat-Hawks a year ago (1.9, 3.49M). Game 3 of the series Friday drew a 1.2 and 2.27 million on ESPN, down 13% and 10% respectively from Heat-Hawks (1.4, 2.52M).
On both nights, the Nuggets-Timberwolves nightcap sank double-digits year-over-year. Game 3 on ESPN (1.3, 2.55M) fell 31% in ratings and 29% in viewership and Game 4 on TNT (1.7, 3.17M) fell 15% and 16% respectively. Last year’s equivalent games were Games 3 and 4 of Suns-Pelicans.
Rounding out the weekend slate, TNT on Saturday drew a 1.7 and 3.09 million for Suns-Clippers Game 4 — flat in ratings and off 1% in viewership from Mavericks-Jazz last year (1.7, 3.12M) — and a 1.0 (-16%) and 1.80 million (-13%) for the clinching Sixers-Nets Game 4. The Sixers’ sweep-clinching win posted the smallest audience of the playoffs excluding NBA TV.
On Friday and Sunday, the NBA swept the key adult demographics of adults 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54 (the NBA took four of the top five spots on Saturday, with a postgame “SportsCenter” sneaking in ahead of Sixers-Nets). Kings-Warriors Game 4 topped the weekend at a 2.2, 1.8 and 2.5, respectively.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 4.25)
