The Knicks revive NBA fever: their Finals break audience records not seen since Michael Jordan
Historical year in terms of views for a final between New York and San Antonio
The 2025/26 NBA Finals made history both on and off the court. The New York Knicks capturing the title by defeating the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in the fifth game of the series became the most-watched Finals game since 1998.
The decisive match, aired by ABC and ESPN last Saturday, drew an average audience of 24.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. Moreover, the broadcast peaked at 33 million viewers during the final minutes when Jalen Brunson delivered a memorable 45-point performance and led the Knicks' comeback after trailing by ten points in the last quarter.
The victory allowed the New York franchise to secure their first NBA championship in 53 years, an event that sparked enormous interest among fans and boosted viewership to levels not seen in decades.
The Finals as a whole averaged 20.6 million viewers, the highest mark since the 1998 series between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz when Michael Jordan clinched his sixth and final ring. Those Finals averaged 29.04 million viewers over six games.
The figures also represent the best record since ABC and ESPN began broadcasting the NBA Finals in 2003. In fact, since 1999, only three editions had surpassed the 20 million average viewers mark.
The 2017 Finals, where the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games, had an average audience of 20.47 million. The year before, Cleveland's historic comeback against Golden State in seven games attracted 20.2 million viewers.
Most-Watched Finals in History
The contrast with the previous season is striking. The 2024 Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers averaged 10.31 million viewers over seven games, nearly half the audience obtained by the series that crowned the Knicks as champions.
With the return of one of the league's most iconic franchises to the top and the media impact generated by Brunson's performance, the 2025 Finals cemented themselves as one of the NBA's greatest television successes of the 21st century.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Los Knicks resucitan la fiebre NBA: sus Finales baten récords de audiencia que no se veían desde Michael Jordan
