The NBA Finals averaged its largest audience since the end of the Chicago Bulls’ championship run.
The six-game Warriors/Cavaliers NBA Finals averaged an 11.6 rating and 19.9 million viewers on ABC, up 25% in ratings and 28% in viewership from last year’s five-game Spurs/Heat series (9.3, 15.5M) and up 10% and 13%, respectively, from the seven-game Heat/Spurs series in 2013 (10.5, 17.8M).
The series ranks as the highest rated NBA Finals since Lakers/Sixers in 2001 (12.1), edging the previous high of 11.5 for Pistons/Lakers in 2004. More impressively, it ranks as the most-watched NBA Finals since Bulls/Jazz in 1998 (29.0M), topping the previous mark of 19.0 million for the 2001 series. This is only the third NBA Finals since 1998 to average at least 18 million viewers.
This year’s NBA Finals ranks as the most-watched best-of-seven series in any sport since the 2004 Red Sox/Cardinals World Series (25.4M). The previous high over that span was 19.4 million for Phillies/Yankees in 2009, which did average a slightly higher rating (11.7 to 11.6).
All six games of the Warriors/Cavaliers series exceeded 10.0 rating and 17.0 million viewers, marking the first time since 2001 that every game of the NBA Finals has had a double-digit rating. The NBA Finals has now averaged a double-digit rating in five of the past six years, after hitting that mark in just one of the previous seven. Four of the games topped 19 million viewers, the most in a single series since 1998.
The series averaged a 7.6 rating among adults 18-49, up 25% from Spurs/Heat last year (6.1), up 7% from Heat/Spurs in 2013 (7.1), and the highest average in the demo since 2004 (7.9). The 7.6 is tied as the third-best in the demo since 1998 (13.1).
Compared to other sports, Warriors/Cavaliers easily topped last year’s seven-game Giants/Royals World Series (8.2, 13.8M), but was no match for the three-game College Football Playoff (16.0, 29.8M). CBS and Turner Sports do not release official averages for the Final Four, but the three games averaged roughly a 12.4 and 22.1 million. Four basketball games this year topped 20 million viewers — Games 5 and 6, Duke/Wisconsin and Wisconsin/Kentucky (22.6M), the most in a single year since at least 2001.
Cleveland (43.7) and the Bay Area (32.8) were the top markets for the NBA Finals, with Columbus, OH (23.4), Memphis (19.5) and Sacramento (18.9) rounding out the top five. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, where LeBron James played the previous four seasons with the Miami Heat, ranked sixth with a 17.7. Norfolk (17.2), Atlanta (16.6), San Antonio (15.4) and Richmond (15.4) also made the top ten.
On the other end of the spectrum, Boston ranked 50th out of the 56 metered markets with a 7.9 average, and Providence ranked second-to-last (6.4).
(Series avg. from ESPN Media Zone, ABC via TV By the Numbers)
