It took more games than one might have expected, but the NBA Finals finally delivered the league its top rating and audience since returning from hiatus.
Monday’s Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals Game 5 averaged a 7.0 rating and 13.03 million viewers on ABC, up 46% in ratings and 30% in viewership from Bucks-Suns on a Saturday night in July last year (4.8, 10.02M) but down 34% and 30% respectively from Warriors-Raptors in 2019, in which Kevin Durant returned from injury only to tear his Achilles (10.6, 18.60M). The share (19) declined a more modest 10% from ’19.
Golden State’s win, which peaked with 15.35 million viewers, ranks as the highest rated and most-watched NBA game since the league returned from hiatus nearly two years ago. The previous marks were a 6.6 and 12.78 million for Suns-Bucks Game 6 last year.
As expected, given the high-quality matchup and the return to the normal time of year, the Warriors-Celtics series accounts for five of the NBA’s top six audiences post-hiatus.
Across all basketball games since the industry-altering events of two years ago, Game 5 ranks sixth in viewership behind five men’s NCAA Tournament games — two national championships, two national semifinals, and UNC-Saint Peter’s in this year’s Elite Eight (13.58M).
If strong by recent standards, ratings and viewership topped only the past two years as the lowest for a Game 5 of the Finals since 2003 (Spurs-Nets: 6.2, 9.31M). The series is now averaging 12.09 million viewers (+26%), topping only the past two years as the lowest average at this point of an NBA Finals since 2007.
What are historically low numbers for the NBA nonetheless rank among television’s top programs. The first five games of the Finals are the five most-watched television programs in the past month (not including news events that aired across several networks).
Game 5 hit series-highs in each of the key young adult demographics, averaging a 4.0 in 18-49, a 3.1 in 18-34 and a 4.65 in 25-54. Those figures trail only Game 6 of last year’s Finals (4.3; 3.8; 4.7) as the highest for any NBA game in those demos post-hiatus. As may go without saying, those figures still pale in comparison to Game 5 in 2019 (6.7; 5.7; 7.1).
Notably, despite ratings in 18-49 plunging 40 percent from Game 5 in ’19, the share rose 14% (from 29 to 33). In other words, the game averaged 4% of adults 18-49 in the average minute, but a solid third of adults 18-49 with televisions in use.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 6.14, network PR]
