NBA Ratings: Viewership Up Double-Digits at Break

The NBA ratings surge may have subsided a bit, but the league still enters the All-Star break up double-digits.

NBA regular season games have averaged 2.02 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT through the All-Star break, up 11% from last year (1.82M).

NBA commissioner Adam Silver during the press conference before the NBA London Game between Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics on January 11, 2018 at the O2 Arena in London, England (Photo by Martin Cole/DPPI/Icon Sportswire)

ABC has averaged 4.52 million viewers through nine telecasts, up 1% from last year (4.46M). TNT has averaged 1.88 million (+19%) and ESPN 1.71 million (+9%). According to Sports Business Daily, NBA TV has averaged 354,000 (+20%).

This past week, Cavaliers-Thunder earned a 1.7 rating and 2.8 million viewers on TNT’s Players Only Tuesday — up 143% in ratings and 151% in viewership from last year (Thunder-Wizards: 0.7, 1.1M). It was the most-watched NBA game on cable since Martin Luther King Day (Warriors-Cavs: 4.7M).

In the nightcap, Spurs-Nuggets drew a 0.8 and 1.24 million — up a third and 41% respectively from last year (Hawks-Blazers: 0.6, 876K).

On Wednesday, Warriors-Blazers drew a 1.1 (+10%) and 1.7 million (+9%) in the back-half of ESPN’s “The Crossover” doubleheader. Clippers-Celtics drew a 0.8 (-11%) and 1.27 million (-8%) in the early window.

Rounding out the action, Lakers-T’Wolves drew a 0.9 (flat) and 1.30 million (-10%) on TNT Thursday.

For the season, the Cavaliers-Warriors Christmas Day game ranks as easily the highest rated and most-watched game on any network (4.5, 8.8M). Eight of the season’s top ten games have involved the Cavaliers, Warriors or Celtics. The lone exceptions both came on Christmas Day, Rockets-Thunder and Sixers-Knicks.