NBA Finals ratings: Heat-Nuggets Game 1 not bad

Game 1 of the NBA Finals held up better than expected in the ratings, as Heat-Nuggets nearly matched last year’s Celtics-Warriors opener.

Thursday’s Heat-Nuggets NBA Finals Game 1 averaged 11.58 million viewers across ABC (11.04M) and ESPN2 (544K), down just 3% from last year’s higher-profile Celtics-Warriors Game 1 on the same two networks (11.90M). Ratings were not immediately available.

Denver’s comfortable win — which peaked with 12.78 million from 10:30-10:45 PM ET — easily outpaced the two previous Finals openers, which aired months out-of-season due to COVID-related scheduling adjustments. Bucks-Suns opened with 8.70 million viewers in July of 2021 and Heat-Lakers bowed with 7.69 million in a fanless fall “bubble” in September 2020.

Outside of those two COVID-affected series, it was the least-watched Finals opener since Cavaliers-Spurs in 2007 (9.21M) and fifth-least watched overall — ahead of two other series involving the ratings-challenged mid-2000s Spurs (2005 Pistons-Spurs: 10.57M; 2003 Nets-Spurs: 9.60M) and Heat-Mavericks in 2006 (11.51M).

As with all comparisons to past years, keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen’s final nationals prior to 2020.

Demographic data was not immediately available, but ESPN said Monday that Game 1 easily won the night in viewership and the key demographics.

Game 1 averaged a 19.9 rating in Denver and a 13.5 in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale. Denver has not previously played in the NBA Finals. Ratings in Miami increased from Game 1 in the “bubble” three years ago (12.9) but paled in comparison to the “Heatles” era from 2010-14 (31.9 in 2011, 30.5 in 2012, 34.0 in 2013 and 30.5 in 2014).

By comparison, last year’s Game 1 averaged a 22.5 in the Bay Area and a 19.6 in Boston. Game 1 in 2021 averaged a 23.9 in Milwaukee and a 23.7 in Phoenix. The last time a Game 1 cleared the 30 mark in either home market was 2018, when Cavaliers-Warriors opened with a 36.1 in Cleveland and a 31.1 in the Bay Area.

(Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR)

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Comments 17

Ray C says:

3 years ago

I can’t seem to reply directly to your most recent comment Sam S. so I will respond indirectly. Historically is an entirely accurate descriptive. In the years of the two leagues being televised, MLB consistently beat the NBA in television ratings and now MLB does not. That is a fact. Here’s another fact: NBA is a considerably more valuable broadcast property than MLB, which is another historically recent development. Why is NBA more valuable? Because NBA dominates MLB in key demographic ratings, the ratings advertisers pay most for. Older political ideologues don’t like the NBA but young people do. The NBA was never as popular in broadcast ratings as the NFL and to suggest otherwise is to reinforce a myth; so there was no shortcoming there to be had. The NBA has collapsed in popularity? Nonsense. NBA revenue has never been higher and their next broadcast deal will almost certainly triple, at least, from what it is now.. If
that’s what a collapse is then every business in the world would like to have a collapse. What has certainly fallen off is MLB, which was once the most popular pro sports league in the US. That is no longer the case, and MLB has been surpassed by the NBA in broadcast viewership according to the most financially significant measurements. Some people are not at all happy that the NBA is succeeding but they’ll have to deal with it because it’s true.
Jordan S. says:

3 years ago

what do you think a close game 7 could average and peak at?
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Tough to say … on Father’s Day in the out-of-home era, probably at or over 20 million. A bit higher than what I would have said before the series started.
esl says:

3 years ago

Excellent numbers for game 1. Considering it was a blowout and the teams involved. Paulsen, curious to know your thoughts on why these numbers are as good as last years game 1 between Celtics-Warriors? Those are big name teams. A legacy team with the Celtics and the popular Warriors and star Steph Curry. Do you think the Heat storyline has brought additional attention to this series? #8 seed going all the way to the finals? And the appeal of a David Vs Goliath matchup between the #1 Denver Nuggets and the #8 Heat?
- Kenneth Adler says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  I too, and curious about last year’s finals not doing as well as I would have thought.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  I think last year’s underperformance is the bigger factor here. For whatever reason, the Warriors were not nearly as strong a draw in the playoffs last year as this year. Conference finals against Mavs was a relative dud. Finals obviously was well below what one would expect given the matchup. I think the assumption last year was that the NBA’s ceiling had dropped to where ~11M was the best a great matchup could do. Obviously a year later, I think it’s clear that last year’s series just never caught on.
hank says:

3 years ago

not bad all things considering, but that local miami rating is almost shockingly low, especially compared to some of the conference final numbers we saw
Dr Richard says:

3 years ago

That local rating for the Nuggets is surprising. I read that that not only have the worst local TV ratings in the NBA, they have the worst ratings in recent memory.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/02/28/Upfront/Ratings-and-Research.aspx

“Times also are tough in Denver, where the Nuggets’ 0.19 rating is on pace to be the lowest NBA local rating for at least the past 15 years.”
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Yeah, but that’s all due to Altitude, the local RSN that is not available in most Denver homes.
Rich S. says:

3 years ago

I had thought 10M would be impressive, so this is very welcome news. More viewers than Phillies-Astros Game 1 too. And you’d think that last night’s Heat win will only increase the interest going forward.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Yes — I don’t think anyone would have expected that kind of number for Game 1 — especially given how uncompetitive a game it was.
  - Vincent says:
    
    3 years ago
    
    Hey Paulsen, what do you think of the away team having a watch party at their home arena during a live broadcast….The heat/Bally sports had a ton of fans watching the games at Kaseya arena[from a feed i watched on the Dan Lebatard show seemed like a ton of people],clearly such gathering eat into the market/household share….this sounds like a dumb question do Nielsen only do homes and seems like even without counting illegal streams is there a case to be made that with almost a live sporting events watch parties even for the super bowl might another reason why tv audience has shrunk even with more devices you can watch said games?
    
    Has ESPN ever released viewership numbers for a live game streaming on their app or even ESPN plus since their inception?
    - Jon Lewis says:
      
      3 years ago
      
      I think that’s less of a problem now in the out-of-home era, though I think those watch parties have probably caused local ratings to be understated in the past. Share probably matters more with local ratings because of that factor.
      
      As for ESPN, I don’t believe they have ever put out streaming-only figures.
- Sam S says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Phillies-Astros Game 1 had 11.8m viewers, so this game was below that. It’s telling that NBA can barely match MLB’s ratings these days, when 5 years ago we used to hear how NBA is competing with NFL.
  - Vincent says:
    
    3 years ago
    
    https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2022/10/world-series-ratings-game-1-phillies-astros-viewership-fox/
    
    No it didn’t, Game 1 for last year’s world series had 11.68mil across all FOX platforms…..The Nuggets – Heat game also had 50K on ESPN deportees and also was streaming on ESPN App and ESPN plus, who knows how much more watched on those platforms….its pretty much a wash of you are comparing those 2 games
  - Ray C. says:
    
    3 years ago
    
    It’s telling that MLB television ratings are no longer superior to NBA television ratings because MLB ratings historically have been higher. NBA Finals ratings now typically surpass World Series ratings and dominate in key demographic ratings, which was not the case in the past. NBA now a more valuable broadcast property than MLB. The reality of NBA vs MLB ticks some people off, particularly people of a certain political ideology.
    - Sam S says:
      
      3 years ago
      
      “Historically” is doing a lot of work there. It depends on how far you go back historically. In the early 2010s, NBA Finals used to absolutely crush World Series in TV viewership. That led some analysts to suggest NBA would even surpass NFL soon. But since then NBA ratings have suffered a collapse which puts them on par and sometimes below MLB ratings. Fact of the matter is, NBA has lost huge amount of popularity in the last 10 years. And that undeniable fact seems to make some people mad.