NEW YORK — Recent reports have revealed that viewership for the NBA’s five Christmas Day games surpassed initial expectations, according to announcements from the league and ESPN.
An impressive average of 5.335 million fans tuned in over the span of 13 hours on ESPN platforms, as detailed by Nielsen figures. This increase marks the highest viewership for Christmas games since 2019.
Compared to last year’s Christmas games, viewership surged by 87%, with certain time slots experiencing particularly notable increases. One highlight was the San Antonio-New York game, featuring Victor Wembanyama’s debut for the Spurs, which attracted an average of nearly 5 million viewers—making it the most-watched Christmas noon game in 13 years and showing a 101% rise over the previous year.
The evening matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State, featuring iconic players LeBron James and Stephen Curry, drew the largest audience, averaging 7.9 million viewers and peaking at nearly 8.5 million as the game drew to a close. This represented a staggering increase of 511% from the same Christmas time slot in the prior year.
Additionally, the late game at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time, pitting Phoenix against Denver, also broke records for that time slot, averaging just under 3.9 million viewers.
The matchup between Philadelphia and Boston attracted an average of 5.24 million viewers, while the Dallas-Minnesota game reached 4.45 million, both up slightly compared to the same times from the previous year.
These strong viewership numbers have positively impacted overall NBA ratings, with ESPN platforms seeing a 5% increase throughout the current season, according to Nielsen data.