Victor Wembanyama stands out as the field workplace draw the NBA wants when Stephen Curry and LeBron James name it quits.
The NBA announced Thursday that the San Antonio Spurs phenom’s Christmas Day debut towards the New York Knicks averaged 4.91 million viewers, making it the most-watched Christmas opener in 13 years. The sport’s viewership was up 98% in comparison with final yr’s Milwaukee Bucks versus Knicks opener.
All 5 Christmas Day matchups noticed year-over-year viewership will increase, with the Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics matinee recreation drawing 5.16M viewers (up 3%), the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Dallas Mavericks night affair drawing 4.38M viewers (up 6%) and the Phoenix Suns vs. Denver Nuggets drawing 3.84M (up 161%). The latter, the nightcap of the slate, was the most-watched late window recreation in Christmas Day historical past, the NBA introduced.
As anticipated, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors recreation — slotted into the prime time 8 p.m. ET slot — drew essentially the most eyeballs, averaging 7.76M viewers and peaking at 8.32M AT 10:30 p.m. ET. It was reportedly the most-watched NBA common season recreation in 5 years, up 499% versus the Christmas Day primetime recreation from 2023.
The uptick in numbers bodes nicely for the NBA, particularly given its current struggles with television viewership. It additionally helps that each one the Christmas Day video games had been aggressive contests, producing the closest margin of victory (5 factors) over a five-day slate in historical past.
There have been beforehand considerations that the NFL’s two Christmas Day video games — which coincided with three of the 5 NBA video games — would steal eyeballs from the basketball league. Nonetheless, it seems that wasn’t the case, because the NFL video games streamed completely on Netflix and did not have an effect on the NBA’s linear TV numbers.
The NBA seemingly felt the NFL encroached on its territory, with certainly one of its main gamers making it clear that “Christmas is our day.”