The first NBA Finals Game 7 in nearly a decade did solid numbers on Sunday night.
About 16.35 million people tuned in to watch the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night, which gave the franchise its first NBA title since relocating to Oklahoma City, ESPN announced on Monday. The game peaked at about 19.3 million viewers, too. That made it the most-watched NBA Finals game in six years.
In total, the series averaged more than 10.2 million viewers per game. That’s down about 9% from 2024. It’s also the least-watched NBA Finals since 2007, when the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic-influenced seasons in 2020 and 2021.
Though Sunday’s numbers were undoubtedly a good showing for the league, it was the first winner-take-all game in the NBA Finals since 2016. It’s easy to see why more fans tuned in.
. Game 1 of the Finals averaged just less than 9 million viewers on ABC earlier this month, which made it the least-watched Game 1 since 1988, excluding the 2020 and 2021 seasons. That was a 19% decline in viewership from last year’s NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.
Game 2 was worse. That contest, which the Thunder won in a blowout, averaged 8.76 million viewers. That made it the least-watched Game 2 since 2007, outside of the 2020 COVID-19 bubble Finals. Game 3 averaged almost 9.2 million viewers, which was down nearly 20% from the same game the year before.
And by comparison, the last Game 7 — which took place in 2016 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors — had about 31 million viewers, according to the . That game was also played on a Sunday night. When looking at the two games side-by-side, this year’s figures don’t look anywhere near as good.
Though the ratings this season as a whole weren’t great, it tracks with the smaller-market teams that made it to the Finals. Indianapolis and Oklahoma City are the 25th and 47th largest markets in the in the United States, respectively. It doesn’t really matter too much in the grand scheme of things, either. The league finalized earlier this month, too, so there isn’t much to worry about when looking at this season’s Finals.
And, perhaps most importantly, the Finals went the full seven games and was incredibly entertaining nearly the whole way through. That’s what the league and basketball fans everywhere want. From a basketball standpoint, and with another new winner crowned yet again, it’s hard to argue this season wasn’t a successful one for the NBA.
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