The NBA just had its most watched Finals game since 1998. As the Warriors beat the Cavaliers in Game 5 on Monday, the game registered a 16.0 rating and became the second-most streamed game of all time.
NBA Finals Game 5 had the best ratings since Michael Jordan’s last championship
The NBA hasn’t seen ratings this high since 1998.
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
The last time the league saw a rating that high was Game 6 in the 1998 NBA Finals, when Michael Jordan and the Bulls won their sixth championship. That game clocked in with a 22.3 rating. Since then, the NBA has seen several Game 7s record between 15.3 and 15.8, but they have fallen short of the 16.0 mark that was reached by Game 5.
The game peaked with an 18.8 rating from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m. ET, and it recorded an average of 537,000 viewers streaming the game per minute, with more than 2.1 million unique viewers. That made it the second-most streamed game and the most-streamed NBA Finals game in league history.
Clearly, the lack of parity doesn’t hurt the league’s ratings.
If there’s any takeaway we’ve had from this series, it’s that the general fan didn’t care that the entire season was leading up to this Warriors vs. Cavaliers matchup. There were star players galore in this series, which made it compelling. After two blowouts, the games were entertaining. All of this made for a series that was watched more, on average, than any since the 2001 Finals with the Lakers and the 76ers.
There may be other areas where the Warriors’ expected dominance causes the league to suffer. We could see local ratings drop, or just online engagement generally. Maybe, if Golden State does this for four more years with little opposition, then things will change. But for now, it doesn’t look like we’re going to see the ratings tank. Quite the opposite, in fact.
See More:
