NBA ratings for the Christmas Day TV games were a bad news/good news situation for the league and networks.
On the bad side, the NBA lost badly in head-to-head with the NFL. For those keeping score, that’s no surprise. The NFL dominates on television, owning almost all of the top-rated shows for the year.
As a positive, the NBA actually had more viewers on Christmas Day than at any other time in the first part of this season.
NBA ratings were down from last year
The most-watched NBA game on Christmas Day was, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics. It had an average of 5.0 million viewers, according to Nielsen, on ABC and ESPN. That number was down 18% from the Milwaukee Bucks vs. Celtics game in the same time window from last year, which got 6.08 million viewers.
The Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets got 4.1 million viewers. The Bucks vs. New York Knicks was the third-highest watched game. This game, on ESPN and ESPN2, got 2.49 million viewers and was down 39% from last year’s Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers game in the same window.
Next up was the Dallas Mavericks vs. Phoenix Suns game on ESPN, which averaged 1.47 million viewers. That was down 42% from the Suns vs. Denver Nuggets late game last year. The Nuggets vs. Miami Heat had 1.30 million viewers and that was a 73% drop from the Memphis Grizzlies vs. Golden State Warriors game from last year in the same window.
This was still a good day of viewership for the NBA. The Lakers vs. the Indiana Pacers in the final of the NBA In-Season Tournament got 4.58 million viewers and had been the most-watched game.
All of these numbers are from Nielsen.
NFL has huge TV ratings numbers on Christmas Day
NFL ratings are always good, and it’s best game on Christmas Day was the Las Vegas vs. Kansas City Chiefs, which averaged a combined 29.17 million viewers and had the largest Christmas Day audience for an NFL game since 1989, according to Neilsen.
The game was shown live on CBS and Nickelodeon.
The Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants on Fox was the second-largest audience since 1989, with 29.02 million viewers.
The Baltimore Ravens win over the San Francisco 49ers averaged 27.24 million on ABC and ESPN Deportes.