NBA Openers See Decline in Viewership, Comparable to Easter Sunday Levels

This year’s NBA Playoffs kicked off with solid viewership numbers, even though they were slightly down from last year’s Easter Sunday extravaganza. The opening weekend pulled in an average of 4.3 million viewers across ABC, NBCUniversal, and Prime Video, marking the second-highest viewership for the start of the postseason since 2011. With four Sunday games broadcast on television, the average viewership hit 4.87 million, a slight increase from last year’s Easter Sunday games.

Keep in mind that Nielsen only started counting out-of-home viewing in 2020 and recently switched up their methodology to include data from smart TVs and set-top boxes. These changes can affect comparisons to historical data.

In a thrilling debut, NBC’s coverage of Trail Blazers-Spurs Game 1 was the weekend’s top draw, pulling in a combined 5.73 million viewers. The matchup marked rising star Victor Wembanyama’s playoff debut. On a less dramatic note, Magic-Pistons managed 5.0 million viewers, showing a 24% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, ABC saw solid viewership numbers, despite a slight dip from last year’s games.

Prime Video also made its mark with streaming-exclusive playoff games, drawing in an average of 3.14 million viewers for its Saturday tripleheader. While these numbers were down from last year’s ESPN tripleheader, younger audiences showed increased interest in the streaming games. The Hawks-Knicks Game 1 was a standout, raking in 3.97 million viewers, with Raptors-Cavaliers falling behind as expected.

Overall, the NBA Playoffs are off to a strong start, and viewers can expect more exciting matchups and thrilling moments as the postseason unfolds.