Sports Ratings Tracker

San Antonio led all markets for the NBA Finals, averaging a 25.9 rating for the Spurs’ five-game defeat at the hands of the Knicks. That figure almost certainly trails each of the Spurs’ previous NBA Finals — the market routinely delivered local ratings in the 30s and 40s during those years — albeit in a different era of television (and Nielsen methodology).

The nation’s top market New York ranked second with a 17.5 average rating. Local ratings for the Knicks’ previous Finals in 1999 were unavailable. New York’s previous championship series, the Yankees’ five-game loss to the Dodgers in the 2024 World Series, averaged a 12.2 locally.

Austin, Texas, placed third with a 12.8 rating, and Oklahoma City was the top market outside of Texas and New York with a 12.4.

Other top markets include Richmond, Va., and West Palm Beach, Fla. (9.9 each) and NBA markets Memphis (9.8), Atlanta (9.7), Minneapolis (9.6) and Philadelphia (9.4).

This year’s NBA Finals Game 7 averaged a 31.9 rating in Oklahoma City and a 25.1 in Indianapolis, according to TVB. Tulsa ranked third at a 20.8, with Chicago and Cleveland as the top neutral markets with a 10.9. San Antonio (10.5), Milwaukee (10.2) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (10.1) rounded out the top eight.

Nationally, the June 22 contest had 7.6 rating and 16.6 million viewers on ABC.

Sunday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 7 averaged a 7.6 rating and 16.61 million viewers across ABC and ESPN+, marking the highest rated and most-watched NBA game since Game 6 of the 2019 Finals (Raptors-Warriors: 10.7, 18.59M).

Game 6 last Thursday night averaged a 4.8 and 9.28 million — surpassing only Lakers-Heat in the 2020 “bubble” as the least-watched Game 6 of the Nielsen people-meter era (1988-present).

For more on the numbers and the full series, see this article.

Monday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 5 averaged a series-high 4.9 rating and 9.54 million viewers on ABC, down 22% in both measures from last year’s Mavericks-Celtics clincher (6.3, 12.22M).

Oklahoma City’s win was the lowest rated Finals Game 5 since Bucks-Suns on a Saturday night in July 2021 (4.8) and the least-watched Game 5 since Heat-Lakers on a Friday night in October 2020 (9.19M).

For more on the numbers, see this article.

Wednesday’s Thunder-Pacers NBA Finals Game 3 averaged a series-high 9.19 million viewers on ABC, down 20% from Celtics-Mavericks last year (11.43M) and the least-watched Game 3 of the Finals since the 2020 “bubble,” when Lakers-Heat averaged a record-low 6.08 million on an NFL Sunday in October.

For more, see this article.

Sunday’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals averaged a 25.3 rating in Oklahoma City, the highest NBA rating in the market since the Thunder’s Game 7 loss to the Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference Finals on TNT (30.0).

In Indianapolis, Game 2 averaged a 19.1 — the market’s highest for a Pacers game since Game 7 against the Cavaliers in the first round of the 2018 playoffs, which also aired on ABC (21.6).

Sunday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 2 averaged 8.76 million viewers on ABC, down 29% from Mavericks-Celtics last year (12.31M) and the least-watched Game 2 of the Finals since Heat-Lakers in the 2020 “bubble” on the night the president was hospitalized due to COVID (6.78M). Outside of that anomalous circumstance, it was the least-watched Game 2 since Cavaliers-Spurs opposite the series finale of “The Sopranos” in 2007 (8.55M).