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Another sign of the growing popularity of Victor Wembanyama: The 2026 Western Conference finals outdrew the 2025 NBA Finals.
The seven-game conference finals series between the Spurs and Thunder averaged 10.83 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. The do-or-die Game 7 Saturday drew 15.9 million viewers, the most-watched conference finals game since 2016.
The total series viewership is about 5% above the 10.27 million for last year’s Finals on ABC and ESPN+, which was also a seven-game series that featured Oklahoma City, which triumphed over the Pacers. It was the least-watched NBA Finals since the 2007 Cavaliers vs. Spurs series that averaged 9.29 million viewers, excluding the COVID-19-impacted series in 2021 that drew 9.91 million between the Bucks and Suns.
Replacing Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers with Wembanyama and the Spurs turned one of the least-watched Finals ever to the most-watched conference finals in 24 years. Each of the seven games drew at least 9 million viewers—a threshold breached by just one other playoff game this year: Game 7 of the first round between the Celtics and Sixers on NBC.
The return of NBC as an NBA media partner has also helped the league. The NBA delivered a 16% increase in regular season viewership, with NBC returning a 109% increase over comparable windows with the 2024-25 season. (It’s important to note that changes in Nielsen measurements have resulted in ratings increases across the board over the last year.)
The NBA Finals will not be on NBC, and will instead air on ESPN networks carried by longtime NBA partner, Disney. But expect viewership numbers to continue to rise as the Spurs face the Knicks, a big market team making its first NBA Finals since 1999.
The Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and Cavaliers drew 7.4 million viewers. The number was significantly less than their Western Conference counterparts, but it was significantly affected by a lopsided series ending in a four-game sweep.
The formula of Wembanyama and the Spurs making an improbable Finals run against a Knicks franchise looking to end a 53-year title drought could help the NBA snap out of a Finals ratings slide. NBA Finals last peaked in the mid-to-late 2010s during the rivalry between Steph Curry and the Warriors vs. LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
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