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The first NBA Cup final exclusive to Amazon Prime delivered a slight year-over-year viewership bump.
The championship game between the Knicks and Spurs drew 3.07 million viewers Tuesday on Amazon Prime Video, up 3% compared to last year’s game on ABC, per Niesen data.
However, that number is down 33% compared to 2023, the year of the inaugural in-season tournament.
The uptick in viewership compared to last year is still a win for Amazon and the NBA considering this year was the first exclusively-streamed final, while the first two championship games aired on linear TV.
Viewership for the first three years of the NBA Cup final:
- 2023: Lakers vs. Pacers, 4.58 million (ABC)
- 2024: Bucks vs. Thunder, 2.99 million (ABC)
- 2025: Knicks vs. Spurs, 3.07 million (Amazon Prime Video)
The inaugural NBA Cup was won by the Lakers and LeBron James, still considered the biggest TV draw in the league. It also aired on a Saturday, compared to a Tuesday the last two years.
The NBA Cup final was Amazon’s most-watched NBA game so far this year, but it is not the most-watched game of the season. The NBA’s opening night games on NBC, the first on the network since 2022, averaged 5.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock.
The two semifinal games were also slightly up this year, averaging 1.67 million viewers, an increase of 14% from last year on ABC and TNT. But the quarterfinals were down 20% from last year, averaging just 1.09 million viewers.
Amazon said this was the best-performing NBA Cup final among younger demographics. The game saw double-digit percent gains compared to last year in key age groups, up 51% with ages 18-34 and up 55% with ages 18-49.
The Cup Is Here to Stay
Despite complaints about court design and questions about player buy-in, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has made clear in year 3 that the NBA Cup will be a mainstay in the league’s regular-season calendar.
Amazon will be the home of the tournament Cup for the remainder of the league’s 11-year media deal, which runs through the 2035–36 season. The league is expected to continue to play around with the tournament and its format, including a move out of Las Vegas next year.
The semifinals and finals of the NBA Cup have been held in Las Vegas for the last three years; starting next year, the semis will be hosted by the higher-seeded teams, the NBA announced in September. The finals are still expected to be played at a neutral site, but Silver said Tuesday that the league is in discussions with Amazon about where it could move the championship game. Silver mentioned that “storied college arenas” may be an option.
