However, the final Nielsen numbers later revealed the game was watched by 51.3 million total viewers and received a 36.8 rating and a 68 share—less than Super Bowl I. [59] In New York City, the game received a 36.3 rating and a 61 share. Super Bowl. Kansas City Chiefs vs San Francisco 49ers. 123.4. NBA. Viewership for the NBA Finals peaked back in 2017, when the league was able to average 20.4 million average viewers. Which Is Viewed More – the Super Bowl or the NBA Playoffs? It’s estimated that 103.4 million people worldwide watched the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots, 41-33, in Super Bowl LII last season. The season before that saw slightly higher numbers when 111.3 viewers tuned in to Super Bowl LI. Basic Statistic Super Bowl TV ratings in the U.S. 1990-2024 Average TV ratings of NBA Finals games in the United States from 2002 to 2024. In the context of the current state of the television industry, Super Bowl LVII beat the NBA Finals' viewership by a significant margin. The former reportedly had 113.06 million viewers tuned in. The NBA announced that the 2023 NBA playoffs were the most-watched in more than 5 years, with viewership peaking at 17.8 million viewers during Game 5 of the finals. Social engagement also increased during the 2023 finals, with @NBA being the most-viewed brand on X (formerly known as Twitter) during the finals. The NBA Finals air every year on ABC; Fox has the World Series rights on a long-term basis. The Super Bowl rotates between CBS, NBC and Fox. Due to a trade with NBC, CBS had the Super Bowl in both In 2024, NBA Finals viewership was only a fraction of the number of viewers of the Super Bowl in the U.S., NBA Finals TV ratings in the U.S. 2002-2024; Compare the Super Bowl to the entirety of the NBA Finals. Compare a Wild Card Round game to a first-round NBA matchup. Viewership for the 2022 NBA Finals is up 37 percent from last year and Overall, TNT’s 2023 NBA Playoffs coverage is averaging 3.8 million viewers, up 10% vs. 2022, and tied with 2018 for the network’s most-watched playoffs since 2014. After the most-watched NBA Playoffs in five years, but one of the least-watched NBA Finals on record, where does the league’s postseason stand in the ratings?. The 2023 NBA Playoffs averaged a 2.7 rating and 5.12 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV, marking the highest average in five years (2018: 5.21M) and third-highest in a decade. This figure beats every other sporting event: the '24 NBA Finals averaged 12 million, the '23 UEFA Champions League final attracted 450 million viewers, and the '24 Super Bowl had 173 million (123 million in the United States). The 2021 NBA Finals were about as successful as a Milwaukee vs. Phoenix matchup in July could be, and grew 32% in total viewers from last year's series (when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Let's pretend the NBA Finals was single elimination. 11% of Americans say basketball is their favorite sport. 7% of Americans say soccer is their favorite sport. 37% of Americans say football is their favorite sport. If the Super Bowl had 113m viewers, we'd expect the Finals to get 34m viewers. The World Cup final had 25m US viewers this year. The 2022 Super Bowl pales in comparison, having had an average TV viewership of 99.2 million on NBC plus an estimated 30 to 50 million viewers around the world. Felix Richter NBA Trades. Connections: Sports Edition Super Bowl LVII vs. 2022 World Cup final. Event U.S. viewership is keen to ensure that it has as much Super Bowl viewership as can be measured The Super Bowl between the Bengals and the Rams attracted 99.18 million viewers. The 49ers vs Rams Week 18 game in 2021 drew in an impressive 19.31 million viewers, still bigger then other sports The sadness in this AS piece is that a Champions League final ad draws very little money compared to a SuperBowl ad, for a number of reasons. For once, the US audience is wealthier on average than that of Champions League viewers. TNT’s Thursday Game (Spurs vs. Mavericks) averaged 1.45 million viewers, a 29% decrease from the previous season’s same game (MSN) What stands out the most here is the huge drop-off in NBA Finals viewers. For the longest time, the NBA Finals have been up there with the Super Bowl when it comes to must-watch American sporting events. The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event of the year by a wide margin. People who haven’t watched a single NFL game all year will plan Super Bowl parties. That’s not to say that people consciously think ‘winning the Super Bowl is more impressive than winning the NBA Finals’. But way more people care about the former than the latter.
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