The NBA is supposedly the second-most popular sport in America. But the TV ratings don’t make that exactly obvious since the average number of viewers for the NBA’s all-important playoffs didn’t match the viewership of an entirely meaningless NFL Hall of Fame game this year.
The NBA playoffs earned an average of 5.47 million viewers per game, the NBA itself said earlier this year. Indeed, the NBA crowed at the time that it was the “most-watched postseason in five years.
However, even as the NBA was excited by the ratings, they pale compared to what the NFL just earned for its Hall of Fame Game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. The Hall of Fame game earned NBC Sports an average of 6.3 million viewers. And it was the network’s most-watched Hall of Fame game since 2018.
Strong showing as the Browns and Jets Kicked Off NFL Preseason in @ProFootballHOF Game pic.twitter.com/CfptBRiIiW
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) August 7, 2023
The NBA may feel it grew, but the games featuring all its stars couldn’t beat a meaningless football game with no bearing on the coming season and included very few of the league’s star players.
The Browns beat the Jets 21-16, not that anyone will care.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Kellen Mond (7) is sacked by New York Jets defensive lineman Bryce Huff (47) during the first quarter of the National Football League Hall of Fame preseason game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns on August 3, 2023. (Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Denver Nuggets took the NBA Championships, beating the Miami Heat four games to one, and apparently, not many noticed.
Overall, the woke, China-loving NBA’s TV ratings for its championship finals were dismal this year, according to the data.
The NBA Finals averaged 11.6 million viewers — the fourth-lowest in 30 years. The average is down six percent from the 12.4 million for the 2022 finals, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Reporter added: “The 2023 series ranks in the bottom five among NBA Finals viewership since total viewers began to be regularly tracked in the late 1980s. It’s ahead of the pandemic-affected series of 2020 (7.45 million viewers, the all-time low) and 2021 (9.91 million) and those in 2003 (9.29 million) and 2007 (9.86 million).”
By comparison, college football swamped the NBA’s ratings this year. The National Championship game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the TCU Horned Frogs — which was not very exciting since TCU lost 65 – 7 — earned 17.2 viewers. That game was even the lowest-rated college matchup since 1999, and it still swamped the NBA, Outkick noted.
If you want basketball to basketball comparison, the women’s college basketball championship this year earned 12.6 million viewers. So, even college women earned more viewers than the professional men of the NBA.
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