NBA Finals ratings: Series ends on healthier note

Giannis Antetekounmpo’s 50-point effort, which snapped the Milwaukee Bucks’ 50-year drought, posted a 50 percent increase in viewership over last year.

Tuesday’s Suns-Bucks NBA Finals Game 6 averaged a 6.6 rating and 12.52 million viewers on ABC, up 57% in ratings and 50% in viewership from Lakers-Heat in the “bubble” last October, which aired opposite Sunday Night Football (4.2, 8.37M), but down 38% and 33% respectively from Raptors-Warriors in June 2019 (10.7, 18.76M).

Milwaukee’s title-clinching win, which peaked with 16.54 million viewers from 11:30 PM ET through the conclusion, delivered the NBA’s highest rating and largest audience since the aforementioned Game 6 of the 2019 finals. The previous highs were a 5.3 and 10.26 million for Game 4 last week. The Suns-Bucks series generated the NBA’s five largest audiences since 2019.

Excluding football games, Game 6 also averaged the fifth-largest sports audience since the wave of cancellations and postponements that decimated the industry in March of last year. It trails only Game 6 of last year’s World Series (6.8, 12.70M), this year’s Kentucky Derby (7.1, 14.37M), and the final two games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (Gonzaga-UCLA: 7.6, 14.94M; Baylor-Gonzaga: 9.4, 16.92M).

The complete six-game NBA Finals averaged a 5.2 and 9.91 million on ABC, ranking as the second-lowest rated and fourth-least watched Finals on record. Ratings increased 30% and viewership 32% from last year’s all-time low in the “bubble” (4.0, 7.49M) but declined 41% and 35% respectively from 2019 (8.8, 15.14M). In addition to topping last year’s “bubble” low, this year’s series outpaced Spurs-Cavaliers in 2007 (9.29M) and Spurs-Nets in 2003 (9.86M). It also outdrew last year’s six-game World Series (9.79M).

It is possible that with the addition of more streaming viewership (Nielsen always adds additional viewing to the supposed ‘final’ nationals) that the Finals will end up crossing the ten million mark.

The NBA Playoffs averaged 4.25 million viewers across ESPN, ABC and TNT, up 35% from last year. Including games on NBA TV, the playoffs averaged 3.97 million, per Sports Business Journal — up 32% from last year (3.01M) but down 17% from 2019 (4.77M).

Playoff games averaged a 7.1 share, meaning that seven percent of homes with televisions in use were tuned to each game. That is the highest for the NBA Playoffs since 2002. Keep in mind that the percentage of homes using televisions has been declining in recent years, and is always lower in the summer months. During this year’s postseason, primetime television viewing — across the board — was 14% lower than last year and 23% lower than in 2019.

Game 6 averaged a 4.3 rating in adults 18-49, per The Hollywood Reporter, television’s highest rating in the demo since the Super Bowl — and its highest non-football rating in the demo since the Oscars in February of last year. It ranks as the highest rated non-football sporting event in the demo since the 2019 World Series, surpassing the NCAA men’s basketball final in April (4.1).

It was also TV’s highest rated show in adults 18-34 since the Super Bowl, averaging 2.64 million viewers in the demo.

In Milwaukee, the title-clincher averaged a 41.5 rating — the market’s highest on record for an NBA game (records date back 25 years), and the highest Finals rating in any market since Cleveland turned in a 46.3 for the Cavaliers’ Game 7 clincher in 2016. The Phoenix market turned in a 25.9.