How The NBA Nearly Doubled Viewership During The 2025-26 Season

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 29: Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the New York Knicks shoots the ball around Chet Holmgren #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second half at Paycom Center on March 29, 2026 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)

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On Wednesday, the NBA announced that over 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games this season – 86% more than last season, and its highest figure in 24 years.

Considering the consternation around the number of networks and services required to watch games this year, the news comes at a welcome time for the NBA. The perceived hurdles are still there, of course. But swapping cable (TNT) for greater broadcast and streaming exposure via NBC, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video has seemed to go exactly as planned.

When increases are this large, there’s always the inevitable question: How did the numbers grow by this much?

Tap To Watch

Tap To Watch was the league’s solution to “so many” TV partners, by simply using the NBA App to route audiences to the game they wanted to watch, even if it was on another service/network.

The NBA’s press release claims that Tap To Watch drove fans to nearly 20 million live streams for nationally televised games (so not just hopping around regional sports networks), which was the entire point of the feature.

Importantly, even for fans that didn’t use much of the Tap To Watch functionality, its presence helped create additional coherence around the NBA App as a central hub to watch and find NBA content – regardless of where it’s housed. Over time, it also helps the NBA be the primary source of discovery for its content, in an environment where AI is increasingly eating up that real estate for viewers both young and old.

Tap To Watch isn’t the only reason why more fans tuned in. But it likely helped alleviate concerns for those already interested in tuning in.

Another factor?

Parity – At The Top – Drives Interest

Parity is a positive when it exists at the top of the standings. And that was the case for the NBA this season, with the top four teams in the East (Detroit, Boston, New York, Cleveland) sitting within eight games of each other.

In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs were set apart from their conference rivals. But just two games separated those teams for the league’s best record.

Across the league, nine different teams won 52 or more games – the highest number since the 2008-09 season, when nine teams also accomplished the feat.

There are caveats in there around the impact of tanking teams on those records. However, a team is what its record shows at the end of the regular season. Having so many teams able to win that to that degree creates an extensive “upper crust” of the league that increases fans’ odds of tuning into an entertaining game.

And the NBA’s viewership data seems to reflect that as well.

The league reported 57 telecasts average at least 2 million viewers (most since 2011-12) and 19 average at least 3 million (most since 2012-13). It also noted viewership highs for special event days like Christmas, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the NBA Tip-Off, NBA All-Star Game and the NBA Cup.

Not coincidentally, most of those games featured at least one of the aforementioned teams near the top of the standings.

The Knicks vs. Spurs NBA Cup Final topped 3 million average viewers on Prime Video, while NBC’s Celtics vs. Lakers game on February 22 was the league’s most-watched Sunday night regular season game since 2000. A late-season NBC tilt between the Knicks and Thunder hit 3.4 million average viewers as fans flocked to watch a potential Finals preview that went down to the last few minutes.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 22: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers goes for the basket against Sam Hauser #30 of the Boston Celtics during the second half of their game at Crypto.com Arena on February 22, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Luiza Moraes/Getty Images)

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Promo Push

During the 2025-26 season, the league and its partners were also potentially better at promoting themselves.

Data provided by Tubular Labs shows that the NBA’s cross-platform social video views were up 19.4% year-over-year during the regular season, to 20.9 billion.

This season, NBA tune-in promos from national linear TV partners ABC, ESPN and NBC delivered 10% more ad reach than linear partners had last season, according to data from iSpot. And that’s before accounting for the additional streaming promos on Amazon Prime Video and Peacock this year.

The league’s stronger end-to-end narratives this year also made that sales pitch simpler.

Last season, the Thunder looked like the runaway favorites to win the Finals early on, and the top seeds in both conferences appeared finalized with time to spare. The MVP (OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) was obvious. San Antonio’s Stephon Castle was the most notable rookie, yet still didn’t have a towering stat line.

This season, along with the aforementioned parity, the Spurs took a huge leap with Victor Wembanyama leading the way, the Charlotte Hornets became one of the league’s most exciting watches and Boston won for much of the year without its best player, Jayson Tatum.

The Knicks and Lakers were excellent, but also full of the usual dramatic twists and turns that come with any team – but especially those two – in markets that large. The impact of injuries on the MVP race created legitimate debates past SGA and Nikola Jokic, even if some of it was fueled by the 65-game rule. This season’s rookie class – led by Kon Knueppel, Cooper Flagg, VJ Edgecombe and Dylan Harper – is one of the NBA’s best rookie groups in years.

None of that means the season ran to absolute perfection. Tanking talk was prevalent and the league has taken some heat for moving first-round playoff games to national TV (including streaming) only.

But looking at what the NBA has done to maximize the first year of its new media deal, the numbers would indicate it has been a significant success.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com