Disney’s torrid championship month is continuing with another strong viewership total from the NBA Finals.
Last Friday’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals on ABC, won by the Knicks, averaged 16.43 million viewers, up 88% from the comparable game last year, and it was the highest Game 2 since the Cavaliers–Warriors series in 2018.
Combined with a similarly robust Game 1 last week, the NBA Finals thus far is now averaging 16.68 million viewers, up 89% from 2025, and also the best such figure in eight years.
The results are the latest in what has been one of the best runs of primetime programming in recent network history. The NHL’s Stanley Cup Final, also airing domestically on ABC with production support from sister network ESPN, is similarly up by 93% from a year ago with an average audience of 4.725 million viewers, the highest initial result for that event since 2015.
The audience boosts for both the NBA and NHL also are far outstripping the boosts of around 10% to 15% seen in many sports broadcasts as a result of Nielsen methodology changes such as Big Data + Panel.
