Published June 3
It’s been a records-setting season for the NBA, and the momentum is rolling straight into the finals.
The playoffs have drawn its largest audience in 28 years and the regular season delivered the highest viewership in 24 years. The second round of the playoffs drew its largest audience in 29 years.
A combination of factors has driven those results. The NBA’s shift toward broadcast TV and streaming has expanded reach, while Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement consistently delivered bigger ratings across sports. Now, the league, ABC and advertisers have been handed a dream matchup as the New York Knicks face off against Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs star widely viewed as the league’s next global icon.
It sets the stage for what could be the most-watched NBA Finals in years. Finals viewership hasn’t cracked 10 million since before the COVID-19 pandemic, but multiple analysts believe this matchup could break records.
“This is not just a huge win for Knicks fans, it’s a huge win for advertisers that have committed to the NBA Finals,” EDO president and CEO Kevin Krim recently told Fox Business. “It’s a huge win for Disney and ABC. And it’s a huge win for the NBA overall.”
Peak viewership for the finals this century came during the three-year stretch when Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors faced LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, averaging roughly 13 million viewers. The most-watched NBA Finals ever was in 1998, known as The Last Dance season with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, which pulled in over 18 million viewers.
Crossing into that territory could mark a tipping point for a league seeking to reassert itself as a mass scale layup in an increasingly fragmented world. Advertisers recognize that leverage.
“From an advertisers’ standpoint as well, demand for the NBA couldn’t be any higher,” Horizon Media’s senior vice president and director of sports media, Adam Schwartz, recently said on The Varsity podcast. “And the networks realize that and are able to leverage that across their entire portfolios.”
This year’s NBA Finals will also mark the first series measured under Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel methodology, which experts say has boosted sports ratings by roughly 7%. Still, the regular-season ratings rose a staggering 86% year over year, suggesting the gains transcend any boost by the new methodology.
French Freak
Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4-inch French superstar, is unlike anything the sport has seen before on and off the court. He spent two weeks with the Shaolin monks in the summer. He plays chess and reads books.
His otherworldly abilities have earned him the nickname “The Alien,” a concept Nike has embraced heavily in its marketing campaigns.
Greetings, @NBA Finals. pic.twitter.com/J8ZsXt2JMw
— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) May 31, 2026
Throughout the playoffs, Nike has taken playful shots at rival brand Adidas and another rising NBA star, Anthony Edwards, whose signature tagline is “Believe That.”
The NBA has long relied on star power, and Wembanyama is the latest heir to the throne. While those instant brand moments are playing out on social, the NBA benefited from a strategic shift away from cable and toward broadcast and streaming as part of its $76 billion rights deal.
That move has translated into larger audiences. Sports Media Watch estimates that around 2 million people streamed each Spurs-Thunder game. All finals games will be available to stream on the ESPN app.
NBC Sports executive Jon Miller said Peacock was essential to the network’s decision to pursue NBA rights.
“Peacock has enabled us to invest in properties we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise,” Miller, NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and partnerships, recently said on a panel. “We would not have been able to acquire the NBA if we didn’t have Peacock as a platform. We would not be able to acquire the exclusive rights to the Premier League if we didn’t have Peacock as an outlet.”