NBA Finals TV viewership in the U.S. 2000-2024

The 2024 NBA Finals were watched by an average of 11.3 million viewers in the United States. This marked a decline from the previous year when over 11.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat 4-1.

How did the 2024 Finals play out?

The 2024 championship series was contested between the Dallas Mavericks, champions of the Western Conference, and the Boston Celtics, winners of the Eastern Conference. The Celtics emerged victorious in the best-of-seven playoff, seeing the franchise move into the outright lead at the top of the list of NBA championship title winners. On their way to their record-breaking 18th title, the Celtics' Jaylen Brown also won his first NBA Finals MVP. However, Brown still has some way to go to make the list of players with the most NBA Finals MVP awards.

How did viewership compare to other major US sporting events?

In 2024, NBA Finals viewership was only a fraction of the number of viewers of the Super Bowl in the U.S., with the latter exceeding 123 million that year. However, when compared with the average TV viewership of the World Series, it was apparent that the NBA Finals were not alone in experiencing a declining number of TV viewers in recent years, with viewership for the World Series dropping from a high of 23.4 million in 2016 to 9.11 million in 2023.