Photo Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya

TV Ratings For 2021 NBA Finals Up 32% From 2020, But Still Way Down From Previous Years

While the NBA has had problems with its TV ratings for a while now, it got worse at an alarmingly bad rate in recent years.

This year’s numbers are thankfully way up from last year’s bubble disappointment, but they’re still nowhere near where the league wants them to be.

2019’s Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors averaged 15.1 million viewers. Last year’s NBA Finals only averaged 7.5 million viewers over the six games, a 51% decline. Now, this year the views have improved again to an average around the 10 million mark.

The last game of the Finals series Tuesday night, attracted 12.5 million viewers on Tuesday, up 50% when compared to Game 6 of the 2020 series, and peaked at 16.5 million viewers in the 11 p.m. Eastern time hour.

That’s up 32 percent from the 2020 Lakers-Heat NBA Bubble Finals series, but down 51% from the 2019 series between the Raptors and Warriors. The 2018 Finals in comparison, averaged 17.6 million, and in 2017, the average was 20.4 million viewers.