NBA Finals ratings sank to COVID-era levels for the Mavericks’ Game 4 rout of the Celtics.
Friday’s Celtics-Mavericks NBA Finals Game 4 averaged a 4.7 rating and 9.62 million viewers on ABC, marking the least-watched Finals game since Suns-Bucks Game 3 in July 2021 (9.25M) and the least-watched Game 4 since Lakers-Heat in the 2020 “bubble,” a game that took place in October (7.70M). Outside of those two COVID-affected years, no Finals game has had a smaller audience since Game 3 of the 2007 series (9.49M).
The 4.7 rating is tied as the seventh-lowest on record for a Finals game, ahead of five games in the 2020 “bubble” and Game 1 in 2021 (4.5).
The Mavericks’ historic blowout, in which they led by as many as 48 points, declined 12% in ratings and 8% in viewership from Nuggets-Heat last year (5.4, 10.41M) and 24% and 20% respectively from Warriors-Celtics in 2022 (6.2, 12.06M).
The Celtics entered Friday with a 3-0 lead, the first such margin in an NBA Finals since 2018. Game 4 that year, in which Stephen Curry and the Warriors completed a sweep of LeBron James’ Cavaliers, averaged a 9.3 rating and 16.24 million. The Warriors led the Cavaliers 3-0 in the prior year Finals as well, and Cleveland’s blowout win drew a 10.7 and 19.06 million.
