Victor Wembanyama’s first NBA game delivered in a big way for ESPN.
Wednesday’s Mavericks-Spurs NBA regular season game, which marked the first game in the career of Spurs #1 pick Wembanyama, averaged a 1.7 rating and 2.99 million viewers on ESPN — the network’s most-watched Opening Week game since Rockets-Lakers in 2018, LeBron James’ first home game as a Laker (3.36M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Wembanyama’s debut, which peaked with 3.90 million from 10-10:15 PM ET, outpaced both Opening Night games on TNT (Lakers-Nuggets: 2.84M; Suns-Warriors: 2.71M). The last time the Opening Night games were not the most-watched of opening week was 2018.
Viewership was slightly below LeBron James’ 2003 career debut against Sacramento, which also aired on ESPN on the opening Wednesday of the season (3.03M). Zion Williamson’s debut in January 2020 — which took place months into the season due to injury — averaged 2.36 million on ESPN. Neither of those figures include out-of-home viewing.
The Mavericks’ win increased 83% from Mavericks-Suns last year (1.63M).
ESPN also fared well with the first half of its doubleheader as Celtics-Knicks averaged 2.55 million — up 76% from Knicks-Grizzlies a year ago. Notably, the Celtics’ win had a higher peak audience than Mavericks-Spurs, averaging 4.35 million from 9:45-10 PM ET. (It seems at least somewhat likely that could be attributed to viewers tuning in for Wembanyama, given Mavericks-Spurs was listed as starting at 9:30 PM ET.)
The two games averaged 2.76 million viewers, up 80% from last year and trailing only 2012 as the network’s most-watched season-opening doubleheader on record (excludes 2011, when the season began on Christmas). The games averaged a 5.2% share of the viewing audience Wednesday night (+91%).
The doubleheader won the night on television in the key adult demographics, with Mavericks-Spurs taking top honors in adults 18-49 (1.2) and Celtics-Knicks placing second (0.9). The next best program in the demo was “Survivor” on CBS at a 0.7.
Viewership for the doubleheader nearly matched Opening Night on TNT (2.78M).
(Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR, Sports TV Ratings 10.26, Programming Insider 10.26)
