NEW YORK — The NBA’s Christmas Day games drew an impressive average of approximately 5.25 million viewers for each of the five matchups aired across ABC, ESPN, and their associated platforms, as reported by the league and Nielsen.

This holiday lineup featured exciting matchups, including San Antonio visiting New York in Victor Wembanyama’s debut on Christmas, along with Minnesota facing Dallas, Philadelphia going up against Boston, Denver matching up with Phoenix, and the highly anticipated clash between the Lakers and Warriors. All these games experienced increases in viewership compared to the previous year.

The Christmas Day games achieved an impressive 84% increase from 2022, largely due to the fact that all five games were broadcasted on ABC for the first time, compared to only two games last year.

The Lakers’ narrow 115-113 win over the Warriors stood out, averaging 7.91 million viewers and peaking at around 8.45 million viewers towards the conclusion of the match. This game marked the highest viewership for an NBA regular-season game in five years and featured Olympic teammates LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

The early afternoon matchup between the Spurs and Knicks captured an average of 4,997,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed noon Christmas game since 2011, in part due to ESPN’s innovative “Dunk the Halls” animated alternate broadcast.

The contest between the Suns and Nuggets also saw considerable viewership, averaging 3.9 million viewers, which was a record for late-night Christmas games.

As a result of these strong ratings, the NBA’s audience numbers for the current season have increased by 5% compared to last season, with the 34 games averaging 1.96 million viewers to date.

These developments are promising for the league, especially in light of concerns about declining viewership. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed previous season ratings, indicating that while there were some early-season declines, the wider trend in cable television viewership has also been showing double-digit drops. Silver mentioned that a shift toward streaming services is occurring, stating, “We’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are on traditional television.” He underscored the importance of this shift for upcoming television contracts, noting that every game will soon be available on a streaming platform.