NBA Playoff Ratings Up Through First Two Rounds Year-on-Year

Even in the face of falling viewership throughout the regular season, the business end of the calendar continues to draw big audiences, with the latest NBA playoff ratings remaining strong throughout round two.

Round Two NBA Playoff Ratings Up vs 2024

The NBA is continuing to post strong audience numbers throughout this season’s playoffs, even in the face of falling regular season viewership and constant criticism of the league’s “boring” product.

For the seventh year in a row, a new team will be crowned champions as the Knicks, Pacers, Thunder, or Timberwolves battle it out to be in contention for the Larry O’Brien Trophy next month.

With plenty of new markets to tap into, including one of the biggest viewerships in the country in New York, with the Knicks back in the Conference Finals for the first time in a quarter of a century, fans are tuning into the NBA playoffs in record numbers.

Whether the other teams, who are all from much smaller fan markets, can sustain the strong numbers remains to be seen, but the playoffs have delivered in drama and entertainment value so far.

An average of 4.17 million viewers have sat down to watch the postseason so far across ABC, ESPN, and TNT; this represents a jump of three percent compared to this time last year.

This also means the 2024-25 playoff are the second-most-watched through the first two rounds since 2014, behind only to 2023.

Conference semifinal games were also up one percent with an average of 4.91 million viewers.

It is worth noting that this year’s postseason slate has benefitted from a number of Game 6s and 7s, which typically have higher ratings that lower stakes games earlier in the series.

Game 6 between the Knicks and Boston Celtics averaged 5.73 million viewers on ESPN, up an eye-watering 14 percent versus 2024’s Knicks-Pacers Game 6 in the same time frame.