Final NBA viewership numbers for Christmas Day games slightly better than originally thought

NEW YORK (AP) — The final viewership numbers are in for the NBA’s five games on Christmas Day and they were even better than first thought, the league and ESPN announced Monday.

An average of 5.335 million viewers tuned in for the five games that spanned 13 hours on ESPN platforms, according to Nielsen, up slightly over the first projections from last week. That made it the most-watched Christmas slate of NBA games since 2019, the league said.

Viewership was up 87% over last Christmas’ games, with some of the five time slots seeing massive increases in the numbers over a year ago. The San Antonio-New York game, Victor Wembanyama’s Christmas debut for the Spurs, was the most-watched Christmas noon game in 13 years, averaging just under 5 million viewers — and was up 101% over last year.

The most-watched game was the 8 p.m. Eastern start between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State, the LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry matchup that averaged 7.9 million viewers and peaked at just under 8.5 million viewers toward the finish. That was up 511% from the same Christmas timeslot a year ago.

Even the late game — a 10:30 p.m. Eastern start between Phoenix and Denver — set a Christmas record for that timeslot, averaging just under 3.9 million viewers.

Philadelphia’s win over Boston averaged 5.24 million viewers, and the Dallas-Minnesota game averaged 4.45 million viewers. Both were up slightly over the same timeslots in 2023.

Buoyed by the Christmas numbers, NBA viewership on ESPN’s platforms is up 5% through this point of last season, Nielsen said.

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