Spurs-Knicks opener nears 17 million viewers in NBA’s top game since 2019 with a peak nearing 20 millions viewers
One of the most anticipated NBA Finals in recent years opened with a television audience beyond even the highest expectations.
Wednesday’s Spurs-Knicks NBA Finals Game 1 averaged 16.93 million viewers on ABC, officially surpassing last year’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 7 (16.61M) to rank as the most-watched NBA game since 2019, when the clinching Raptors-Warriors Finals Game 6 averaged 18.59 million.
The Knicks’ win, which peaked with 19.63 million in the 11 PM ET quarter-hour, ranks as the most-watched Game 1 of an NBA Finals since 2018, when the last of four-straight series between LeBron James’ Cavaliers and Stephen Curry’s Warriors averaged 17.67 million. The previous high was 13.38 million for Warriors-Raptors in ’19.
Going back further, Spurs-Knicks delivered the fifth-largest Game 1 audience since ABC resumed airing the NBA Finals in 2003, and the largest outside of the four-straight Cavaliers-Warriors series from 2015-18.
Game 1 viewership increased 90% from Pacers-Thunder last year (8.90M) — the biggest year-over-year increase for a Game 1 of the Finals — and 42% from the previous post-COVID high for a Game 1, Celtics-Warriors in 2022 (11.90M).
(…) it should be noted that Game 1 of this year’s series outdrew the previous NBA Finals opener between the Spurs and Knicks in 1999. Game 1 of that year’s series averaged 16.57 million on NBC.
Source: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2026/06/nba-finals-ratings-game-1-most-watched-since-2019/
Of note: The full seven-game Spurs-Thunder NBA WCF averaged 10.83 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. Notably, Spurs-Thunder averaged more viewers than last year’s seven-game Thunder-Pacers NBA Finals (10.30M) including a combined Game 7 average of 15.90 million on NBC and Peacock.
It officially ranked as the most-watched conference final game since Thunder-Warriors on TNT in 2016 (16.00M). Compared to the previous Western Conference Finals Game 7 in 2018, Warriors-Rockets on TNT, viewership increased 7% from 14.81 million. The Spurs’ win peaked at 22.2 million viewers.
As for the other conference final series, the four-game Knicks-Cavaliers Eastern Conference Finals averaged 7.4 million on ESPN/ABC.