Key Points
- Through four games, the Finals averaged 19.6 million viewers, the most since 1998.
- Game 4 viewership rose 123% over last year's Game 4.
- Game 3 drew 23.8 million, the most-watched Finals Game 3 since 1998.
- The Knicks beat the Spurs 4-1 for their first title since 1973.
The Knicks-Spurs Finals were a ratings event. Through their first four games, the 2026 NBA Finals averaged 19.6 million viewers across ABC and ESPN — the most-watched NBA Finals at that point since 1998, the year Michael Jordan's Bulls closed out the Jazz in his last championship run. For a league that has spent years fielding questions about declining audiences, it is the strongest Finals number in a generation.
The records
The per-game marks stacked up. Game 3 averaged 23.8 million viewers, the most-watched Finals Game 3 since 1998. Game 4 drew 20.9 million, the largest Finals Game 4 audience since 1998 — and up 123% from the comparable game a year earlier.
Why it landed
The matchup wrote itself. The New York Knicks, the league's biggest-market franchise, chasing a first title since 1973, against Victor Wembanyama and a Spurs team built around the most hyped prospect in a decade. Add the debut of the "Inside the NBA" crew on ABC and ESPN, and the league had the rare Finals that pulled in viewers who don't normally show up for the NBA.
The read
Ratings narratives cut both ways, and one monster Finals doesn't reverse a decade of cord-cutting. But the league has been desperate for proof that the right story still moves a mass audience, and a New York championship opposite a generational French star is about as good as the script gets. The Knicks won the title 4-1; the NBA, for one June, won the argument about its own relevance.
Source: NBA.com, Sports Media Watch
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