The NBA conference finals continues to deliver multi-year viewership highs, both for the Thunder-Spurs main event and the Knicks-Cavaliers undercard.
Through four games, the Thunder-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals was averaging 9.62 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience on NBC (3.8 rating, 7.49M viewers) and streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.13M), marking the highest four-game average for a conference final since Heat-Bulls on TNT in 2011 and the highest on record for a Western Conference Finals.
Last Sunday’s Game 4 averaged a combined 10.30 million across Nielsen (4.0 rating, 8.36M per Nielsen) and Adobe (1.94M), the highest for a conference final Game 4 since Heat-Celtics on ESPN in 2012 (11.07M) and highest for a WCF Game 4 since Spurs-Trail Blazers in ’99 (10.70M).
Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Those changes will generally skew historical comparisons, particularly to years prior to 2020.
Game 3, as previously noted, had a combined audience of 9.03 million Friday night (3.6, 7.03M per Nielsen; 2.00M per Adobe), the highest for a conference final Game 3 since Bulls-Heat on TNT in ’11, and the highest for a WCF Game 3 since Kings-Lakers on NBC in 2002.
Compared to last year’s equivalent Thunder-Timberwolves WCF on ESPN/ABC, viewership for Games 3 and 4 increased 72% and 58% respectively from 5.26 and 6.53 million. (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.)
As for the other conference final series, the four-game Knicks-Cavaliers Eastern Conference Finals averaged 7.4 million on ESPN/ABC — officially marking the most-watched East Finals since the seven-game Heat-Celtics on TNT in 2023. Viewership increased 6% from last year’s six-game Pacers-Knicks series on TNT Sports (7.0M), within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.
The Knicks’ easy sweep was also the most-watched conference final on the ESPN networks since that same 2023 postseason, a more competitive four-game sweep between the Nuggets and Lakers.
The top game of the series was Saturday’s Game 3 on ABC, which averaged a 3.7 rating and 8.11 million viewers — the highest for a Game 3 of the East Finals since the previously-noted Bulls-Heat in 2011. Ratings increased 16% and viewership 14% from Knicks-Pacers last year (3.2, 7.09M).
Monday’s clinching Game 4 averaged 7.2 million viewers on ESPN, up 7% from Knicks-Pacers last year (6.71M). As previously noted, Games 1 and 2 each averaged 7.1 million on ESPN. (More specifically, Game 1 had a 3.6 rating and 7.12 million and Game 2 a 3.5 and 7.13 million.)
