Much has been made in recent years about the declining viewership of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Critics, fans and media personalities have blamed the tumbling viewership on a myriad of factors including the difficulty of watching games and the lack of new and exciting stars.
NBA executives, including Commissioner Adam Silver, heard these concerns and took action. So far in the current NBA season, that action is paying off. Ratings are on the rise, seemingly due in large part to a reshuffling of broadcast rights that are making it much easier for fans to watch the games.
According to a report from Sports Media Watch in November, viewership for the NBA was up 30% from the first month of the previous season, and it was the most-viewed first month of the season since 2017.
Source: Sports Media Match
(Story claims 1.91 is a 30% increase from previous year,
meaning previous year’s viewership must have been approximately 1.47)
Several changes helped make this possible, starting with a broadcast deal the NBA struck in 2024. But the story of the NBA’s viewership is a multi-faceted one, which spans the entire globe.
Viewership in general has declined for decades
After the peak of NBA television viewership in the 1990s as Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan ran the league, the sport has struggled to sustain a high viewership. There have been a few seasons and NBA Finals that have helped ratings rise (whenever the Los Angeles Lakers or Boston Celtics are in the Finals, when LeBron James took the Miami Heat to four straight Finals appearances, or when the Golden State Warriors won a record 73 regular-season games in the 2015-16 season) but those increases in viewership have never lasted long.
According to data from Sports Media Watch, viewership has particularly struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic. Viewership of those seasons was a paltry 1.36 million per game, and the league has been unable to get back above 1.61 million in the years since then.
Source for 1993-2023: Sports Media Watch,
Source for 2023-2024: Sports Media Watch,
Source for 2024-2025: Sports Media Watch
One time of year the NBA has usually been able to draw decent ratings is coming up: Christmas. In recent years, however, even that reliable date has seen a decline in ratings.
Christmas games
For many people, Christmas marks the unofficial beginning of NBA season. This is when the stakes start rising after the first two months of play. Since the 1940s, the NBA has held games on Christmas, building a brand and a reliability that many fans depend on.
| Season | Christmas ratings in millions | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 8.436 | NBC |
| 1998-99 | No games played | – |
| 1999-2000 | 6.358 | NBC |
| 2000-01 | 4.875 | NBC |
| 2001-02 | 4.991 | NBC |
| 2002-03 | 4.52 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2003-04 | 4.964 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2004-05 | 8.917 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2005-06 | 7.124 | ABC |
| 2006-07 | 5.467 | ABC |
| 2007-08 | 4.294 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2008-09 | 4.429 | ABC, ESPN, TNT |
| 2009-10 | 4.171 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2010-11 | 5.997 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2011-12 | 6.305 | ABC, ESPN, TNT |
| 2012-13 | 5.499 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2013-14 | 4.459 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2014-15 | 5.217 | ABC, ESPN, TNT |
| 2015-16 | 5.579 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2016-17 | 4.56 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2017-18 | 5.098 | ABC, ESPN, TNT |
| 2018-19 | 5.829 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2019-20 | 5.34 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2020-21 | 4.47 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2021-22 | 4.082 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2022-23 | 4.27 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2023-24 | 2.87 | ABC & ESPN |
| 2024-25 | 5.25 | ABC & ESPN |
Sources: Sports Media Watch, Deadline, USA Today, SportsPro
In recent years, the NFL has also held games on Christmas, which has bitten into NBA viewership significantly. In no year was this clearer than in 2022, when the NBA’s Christmas games averaged a paltry 2.87 million viewers, according to USA Today. All three of the NFL’s games that day averaged over 27 million viewers.
This underscores the fact that the NFL and the NBA live in different realities when it comes to viewership. As the NBA fights for viewers and the NFL draws them in almost effortlessly in the United States, the NBA has historically done an excellent job reaching fans overseas.
NBA international viewership
While international viewership numbers are difficult to come by, it’s clear that the NBA is massively popular around the world. A recent study from YouGov offered some impressive insight into the NBA’s international appeal compared to other professional American sports leagues.
Source: YouGov
As of November 2023. Measuring % of adults in each market who describe respective leagues as one of their “top interests” or that they are “somewhat interested” in these leagues
A 2023 survey from Kagan Consumer Insights shows a stunning set of statistics:
- 23% of American adults said they watch the NBA
- 10% of European adults said they watch the NBA
- 52% of Chinese adults said they watch the NBA
Basketball has been extremely popular in China since Yao Ming joined the NBA in 2002, and that popularity has clearly remained. While there has not been another Chinese superstar since then, the league has become increasingly international in makeup, especially among the best players.
International players are taking over the league, both in number and popularity
Since the turn of the century, the makeup of the NBA has become much more international. Teams search all around the world, not just within the country, for top talent.
| Season | Players | Countries | Most Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-01 | 45 | 29 | France (5) |
| 2001-02 | 64 | 34 | France (7) |
| 2002-03 | 68 | 33 | France (8) |
| 2003-04 | 73 | 34 | France (8) |
| 2004-05 | 81 | 37 | France (9) |
| 2005-06 | 82 | 38 | France (10) |
| 2006-07 | 83 | 37 | France (10) |
| 2007-08 | 76 | 32 | France (9) |
| 2008-09 | 77 | 33 | France (9) |
| 2009-10 | 83 | 36 | France (10) |
| 2010-11 | 84 | 38 | France (11) |
| 2011-12 | 86 | 35 | France (11) |
| 2012-13 | 84 | 37 | France (10) |
| 2013-14 | 92 | 39 | France (10) |
| 2014-15 | 101 | 37 | Canada (12) |
| 2015-16 | 100 | 37 | Canada (12) |
| 2016-17 | 113 | 41 | Canada (11) |
| 2017-18 | 108 | 42 | Canada (11) |
| 2018-19 | 108 | 42 | Canada (11) |
| 2019-20 | 108 | 38 | Canada (16) |
| 2020-21 | 107 | 41 | Canada (17) |
| 2021-22 | 109 | 39 | Canada (18) |
| 2022-23 | 120 | 40 | Canada (22) |
| 2023-24 | 125 | 40 | Canada (22) |
| 2024-25 | 125 | 43 | Canada (21) |
| 2025-26 | 135 | 43 | Canada (23) |
Sources: Interbasket, NBA
Many of the most popular players are international players. While Americans such as LeBron James and Stephen Curry are still the most viewed players on social media and the most popular players, young international stars are among the most popular.
| Player | Views (in billions) | Age (as of the end of the 2024-25 season) | Country of origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| LeBron James | 3.23 | 40 | United States |
| Stephen Curry | 2.56 | 37 | United States |
| Luka Doncic | 1.82 | 26 | Slovenia |
| Victor Wembanyama | 1.47 | 21 | France |
| Nikola Jokic | 1.2 | 30 | Serbia |
| Ja Morant | 1.09 | 25 | United States |
| Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 1.06 | 29 | Canada |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 0.897 | 30 | Greece |
| Anthony Edwards | 0.8 | 23 | United States |
| Jayson Tatum | 0.766 | 27 | United States |
Source: NBA
With James and Curry set to retire soon (though both of them continue to play at an improbably high level this late into their careers) these international stars are likely going to take the mantle from them. And with them, their countries are getting more engaged.
Take Serbia, for example. Serbian Nikola Jokic was an unheralded second-round pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, but before too long he started to take the league by storm. His inventive passes and year-by-year improvement catapulted him to the league’s top echelon of players, and he is now a contender for MVP every year. When he started his ascent to superstardom, Serbian viewers started to pay attention:
- In 2019, Forbes reported that NBA League Pass subscriptions in Serbia spiked by 395%.
- In 2023, when Jokic led the Nuggets to the NBA title, the NBA announced that League Pass subscriptions in Serbia increased by 66%.
We are witnessing it once again with Frenchman Victor Wembanyama’s introduction to the NBA. While France has produced NBA stars in the past such as San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, Wembanyama (who is also with the Spurs) is a different animal. The hype around Wembanyama began years before he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2023, and he has continued to drive viewership growth:
- In 2024, Forbes reported that NBA viewership in France was up 23%, while NBA League Pass subscriptions in the country were up 26%.
- In 2025, Sportico reported that international viewership of Spurs games on NBA League Pass has grown by 77%.
NBA fans tend to be younger, more diverse than other American sports fans
While the NFL has a stranglehold on American sports viewership, there is cause for optimism for the future. The NBA’s fanbase, according to a survey featured in the Sports Business Journal in 2024, is younger than other American sports fanbases.
Source: Sports Business Journal
*Note: Survey done during 2022-23 season
That same survey showed that American NBA fans tend to be more diverse than other American sports fans.
Source: Sports Business Journal
*Note: Survey done during 2022-23 season
Making a new broadcast deal
After the close of the 2023-24 season, when there was a slight uptick in overall viewership but a drop in NBA Finals viewership for the second year in a row, the NBA announced its massive new media agreements.
The NBA renewed its partnership with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN and ABC) and added new agreements with NBC and Amazon that would begin in the 2025-26 season and carry on through the 2035-36 season. The deal was worth a staggering $77 billion, and strived for a simple and effective goal — to get more NBA games in front of more viewers.
Under this new deal, starting in the 2025-26 season:
- NBCU (NBC/Peacock) will air up to 100 regular-season games per season, with more than half of those airing on NBC with Peacock getting a weekly doubleheader.
- Amazon will show 66 NBA regular-season games on Prime Video each season, including a series of guaranteed doubleheaders and the championship game of the new in-season tournament.
Those two packages alone were set to reach huge audiences. As of early 2025, Amazon Prime Video has 130 million subscribers and Peacock has 41 million subscribers. This was a huge increase from networks that had previously aired exclusive games, such as NBA TV. NBA TV isn’t included on many cable networks, and has struggled to consistently draw decent viewership. During the 2024-25 season, NBA TV averaged 330,000 viewers per game, according to the Sports Business Journal, which also reported that was the highest average for the network since the 2015-16 season.
For comparison’s sake, NBA games averaged a Nielsen-estimated 1.91 million viewers across NBCUniversal, ESPN and Amazon Prime Video over the first month of this season, per Sports Media Watch.
| Primary broadcast partners for 2025-26 season | Number of regular-season games broadcast | Playoff Games broadcast | International reach | Streaming subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Prime Video | 66 | All six SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament games, approximately one-third of the first and second rounds each year, one of the two Conference Finals series in six of the 11 years on a rotating basis with NBCU | Globally as part of Prime Video, with an expanded package of games in select territories, including Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland | 130 million |
| NBCU (NBC and Peacock) | Up to 100 | Approximately 28 games in the first two rounds of the playoffs, one of the two Conference Finals series in six of the 11 years on a rotating basis with Amazon, beginning with the 2025-26 season | Several European markets through Sky Sports as well as in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa | 41 million (Peacock) |
| Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN) | 80 | Approximately 18 games in the first two rounds each year and one of the two Conference Finals series in 10 of the 11 years of the agreement. ABC will remain the exclusive home of the NBA Finals | Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and the Netherlands, and via Disney+ in select markets in Asia and Europe. | 24.9 million (ESPN+, as of early 2025) |
Source for everything but streaming column: NBA,
Source for Amazon Prime Video: The Hollywood Reporter,
Source for NBCU (NBC and Peacock): The Hollywood Reporter,
Source for: Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN)
According to a news release from the NBA, NBA content has amassed over 30 billion views across social media platforms operated by the league and third parties, which is a record for the first month of a season.
One of the key elements of this strategy is flexibility. There are more ways than ever to watch NBA games now. During the 2024-25 season, there were 77 games that were available only on traditional cable television. During the 2025-26 season? There are none, according to Sports Media Watch, signaling that the NBA is getting with the times and making it easier for people without traditional cable to watch games.
That flexibility expands beyond television sets — the NBA is also making it easier to watch on your phone.
Social media changes
With games being featured on various outlets and streaming platforms, it can still be confusing to find the game you want to watch. This season, the NBA incorporated something called Tap to Watch to help solve this problem.
Tap to Watch is a module in the NBA app and other partner apps and sites including Google, Meta, X, Reddit, FanDuel and others. When you’re checking the score of a game on one of these sites, you can click a button that shows which network it’s streaming on, and if you have that service’s app installed on your phone, you can go straight to the action. As it has been announcing its viewership increases early in the season, the NBA has been sure to give some credit to the Tap to Watch feature.
The NBA’s social media following has increased considerably over the years, as one would expect:
- In 2016, the NBA had a combined 60.7 million followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- As of December 2025, the NBA has a combined 225.8 million followers on those platforms, with another 25.4 million on TikTok.
Where might this go?
It’s still early in the season, which is probably an encouraging factor for the NBA. Viewership usually rises as the season goes along, as the NBA generally experiences its lowest viewership before Christmas.
Nic Barlage, CEO of the Cavaliers, told the Sports Business Journal in February of this year that even though the Cavaliers had an amazing start to the 2024-25 season, it was still a comparatively slow time for their viewership.
“Look, the hardest part in the NBA business is October, November and December,” Barlage said to SBJ. “And we were fortunate enough to start the season in a very historic way. You capture attention, you capture eyeballs, you capture engagement. Normally, those are the leanest two and a half months. And so now after the first of the year, everything kind of shoots like a rocket ship in a really positive way from there.”
The first month of this current season has also been notable for who hasn’t been playing. One of the major storylines so far in the NBA is the number of marketable stars who are out due to injury. Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton and Portland Trail Blazers all tore their Achilles tendons in the playoff last year, and all are expected to miss most or all of the season. Lakers star LeBron James has missed several games early in the season, as has previous MVP and Milwaukee Buck Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The playoffs and NBA Finals are always the most-viewed portion of the season as well.
Source for 2016-17: ESPN Press Room
Source for 2017-18: Sports Media Watch
Source for 2018-19: Sports Media Watch
Source for 2019-20: Sports Media Watch
Source for 2020-21: NBA
Sources for 2021-22: Added viewership numbers from first two rounds (Sports media Watch) to viewership numbers from conference finals (Sports Media Watch) to NBA Finals viewership (Wikimedia Commons) and averaged them
Source for 2022-23: ESPN
Source for 2023-24: SportsPro
Source for 2024-25: Sports Media Watch
Source: Wikipedia commons
Other optimistic signs
Viewership alone is only part of the measure of a league’s success. But fortunately for the NBA, other indicators are up in addition to viewership.
During the first month of the season, according to an NBA news release:
- NBA Store merchandise purchases rose more than 20%.
- Subscriptions to NBA League Pass, which allows a subscriber to watch almost all of their team’s (and other team’s) games, are up 10%, with time spent viewing games on the platform up 8%.
- Attendance at games continues to be strong after the league had the second-best attendance in league history last season. Over the course of the first month, 10 NBA teams reported that they had sold out all of their games.
Conclusions
Perhaps fans are drawn to the new generation of stars, including Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or the Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić. Perhaps sports fans without cable are finding it easier to watch the games. Maybe people scrolling on social media are being drawn in by convenient ways to tune into a game.
It’s a little early in the season to diagnose why fan engagement this season is up for the NBA, and time will tell whether it’s going to be a long-term trend or a temporary boost before viewership drops again.