Sports Ratings Tracker

Last Thursday’s Thunder-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals Game 6 averaged 11.59 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (9.28M) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.32M), marking the largest audience for a conference final Game 6 since Lakers-Kings on NBC in 2002 (16.64M).

Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.

The Spurs’ series-tying win increased 43% from last year’s lone conference final Game 6, Knicks-Pacers on TNT Sports (8.12M). (NBC’s position is that because Nielsen does not track its streaming viewership, its combined Nielsen + Adobe audience figures are comparable to the Nielsen-only figures of other networks.)

Tuesday’s Spurs-Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals Game 5 averaged a combined 10.24 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-estimated linear audience (7.96M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.28M), marking the largest audience for a Game 5 in the conference finals since Celtics-Heat on ESPN in 2012 (10.25M) and the most-watched Game 5 of the WCF since Lakers-Kings on NBC in 2002 (14.59M). It was the first conference final Game 5 on broadcast television since that 2002 postseason.

Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.

Oklahoma City’s win more-than-doubled last year’s Timberwolves-Thunder Game 5 on ESPN (4.62M).

Through five games, the Western Conference Finals was averaging a combined 9.74 million viewers, still trending as the most-watched WCF on record through five games, and the highest five-game average for any conference final since Heat-Bulls in 2011 (10.41M).

Last Friday’s Thunder-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals Game 3 averaged a combined 9.03 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (7.03M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.00M), officially ranking as the most-watched conference final Game 3 since Bulls-Heat on TNT in 2011 (10.89M) and the most-watched Game 3 of the West Finals since Kings-Lakers on NBC in 2002 (10.06M).

Oklahoma City’s win increased 72% from the Timberwolves’ 40-point rout of the Thunder on ABC last year (5.26M).

The Thunder-Spurs series was averaging 9.4 million viewers through three games (7.2M per Nielsen, plus 2.2M per adobe Analytics), the highest on record at this point of a Western Conference Finals. Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.

Tuesday’s Lakers-Thunder second round NBA playoff Game 1 averaged 6.8 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (5.3M) and Adobe Analytics, up a third from a Nielsen-only 5.1 million for Warriors-Timberwolves on TNT an truTV last year.

The Thunder’s win, which peaked with 8.2 million, delivered the third-largest audience of the postseason thus far.

On Monday night, the Knicks’ Game 1 rout of the Sixers averaged 6.3 million (4.93M per Nielsen, plus Adobe Analytics) — up 28% from Knicks-Celtics on TNT Sports last year (4.88M).

Both nights, NBCU carried a second game that aired on Peacock and was not Nielsen-rated (Timberwolves-Spurs on Monday, Cavaliers-Pistons on Tuesday).

On Wednesday night, ESPN averaged 5.2 million for Sixers-Knicks Game 2 and 4.7 million for Timberwolves-Spurs Game 2 — up 13 and 24 percent respectively from last year’s equivalent TNT Sports doubleheader of Knicks-Celtics (4.6M) and Nuggets-Thunder (3.8M).

Monday’s Pistons-Magic first round NBA playoff Game 4 averaged a combined 5.4 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, up 155% from a Nielsen-only audience of 2.1 million for a non-exclusive Cavaliers-Heat Game 4 on TNT Sports last year.

Viewership also increased 15% from Hawks-Knicks Game 2 in the same Monday night NBC window the prior week.

Later in the night, Timberwolves-Nuggets Game 5 averaged 3.9 million — actually down from Rockets-Warriors on TNT Sports last year (4.0M).

On Tuesday night, Hawks-Knicks Game 5 averaged 3.8 million on NBC, the most-watched game on a night that included a competing NBA doubleheader on ESPN. Last year’s closest equivalent window was Magic-Celtics on NBA TV, which was subject to local blackout and averaged 739,000.

The latest edition of NBC’s NBA “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday” — Spurs-Celtics in most markets and Timberwolves-Lakers on the West Coast — averaged a combined 3.6 million viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, marking a season-high for NBC’s Tuesday regional window.

The Tuesday night window included a live cut-in to Miami Heat C Bam Adebayo scoring the final points of his 83-point effort — the second-highest point total in NBA history — but figures for that portion of the telecast were not immediately available.

Lakers-Mavericks averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.6 million viewers in last week’s season premiere of ABC’s “NBA Saturday Primetime,” down from a 1.6 and 3.05 million for Warriors-Lakers last year.

Earlier in the night, Knicks-Sixers drew a 1.2 and 2.06 million, up from a 0.9 and 1.5 million for Nuggets-Timberwolves last year. ABC was slated to carry a tripleheader, but the middle game (Warriors-Timberwolves) was postponed.

In other recent NBA action, ESPN on Wednesday averaged 1.88 million for Lakers-Cavaliers and 1.54 million for Spurs-Rockets.

Numbers for the latest NBA on NBC “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday” window were not immediately available, but the prior week’s January 20 slate — Spurs-Rockets in most markets and Lakers-Nuggets on the West Coast — drew a Nielsen-estimated 1.2 and 2.09 million. (Figures including Adobe Analytics, which measures NBC’s streaming viewership, were not immediately available.)

Last week’s NBA “Coast to Coast Tuesday” slate — Magic-Sixers and Clippers-Lakers — averaged 2.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock (across both Nielsen and Adobe Analytics), marking the largest group stage audience in the three years of the NBA Cup.

That comes with the caveat that no previous group stage telecast aired on broadcast television, much less in a regionalized format combining early and late windows. (Plus the standard caveats regarding Nielsen methodological changes.)

The following night, ESPN averaged 2.10 million for a Thanksgiving Eve tripleheader, up 54% from a doubleheader last year. Timberwolves-Thunder led the way with 2.43 million (+83%), followed by Rockets-Warriors at 2.03 million (+45%), with Pistons-Celtics leading off at 1.81 million.