With the Celtics the defending champions and the Lakers seemingly back to title contention, the latest matchup of the NBA’s most storied rivals delivered a seven-year viewership high.
Saturday’s Lakers-Celtics NBA regular season game averaged 4.6 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest NBA regular season audience — outside of Christmas — since a Cavaliers-Celtics game in February 2018 (4.64M). The previous high was 4.58 million for last season’s Pacers-Lakers NBA Cup Final.
(As with any multi-year comparisons, keep in mind that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home data in its viewership estimates until 2020, and has steadily increased its out-of-home sample in the years since.)
Boston’s win, which peaked with 5.34 million in the 9:15 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 92% from Celtics-Suns on the same weekend last year (2.40M).
Across all windows this season, the game ranks fourth in viewership behind three on Christmas Day — Lakers-Warriors (7.91M), Sixers-Celtics (5.24M) and Spurs-Knicks (5.00M). The Lakers have played in four of the top ten games this season, more than any other team. Of the top 15 games this season, all-but-three have aired on ABC.
In a rarity for the NBA prior to the postseason, the game was the most-watched sportscast of the weekend.
The NBA regular season is now averaging 1.57 million viewers across the league’s three primary partners, ESPN, ABC and TNT, down just two percent from a year ago. The three network average was down in the neighborhood of 20 percent prior to Christmas. (Figures including NBA TV were not immediately available.)
In other weekend action, ABC averaged 2.03 million for Suns-Mavericks and 1.87 million for Nuggets-Thunder on Sunday afternoon. ABC did not carry any games on the same Sunday last year due to the Academy Awards.
Nuggets-Thunder, a matchup of title contenders that was close until Oklahoma City pulled away late in the fourth, declined 18% from Nuggets-Celtics in the same window a week earlier (2.27M). It also trailed the two prior Thunder games on ABC, which occurred during the NBA Cup last December. The Cup final against Milwaukee averaged 2.99 million and a semifinal against Houston had 1.89 million, both in primetime.
Sunday’s Cavaliers-Bucks nightcap on ESPN actually fared slightly better with 1.89 million, up from the network’s year-ago doubleheader of Sixers-Knicks (1.29M) and Timberwolves-Lakers (1.77M), which aired opposite the Oscars.
