Pacers/Thunder NBA Finals Game 7 breaks six-year viewership drought

One of the lingering storylines in the 2024-25 NBA season has been about fan engagement and viewership numbers.

We saw some abnormal low viewership numbers in certain playoff games, and people began to question how the league was handling its product.

That was all out the window, for at least Sunday night, as Game 7 of the NBA Finals broke a major viewership drought.

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What six-year drought did the Game 7 broadcast break?

According to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic, Game 7 was the first NBA Finals game in six years to have at least 16.353 million viewers.

The fact that it was a Game 7 helps those numbers, as it was the first one in the NBA Finals in nine years.

It's a great feat nonetheless, as there have been some good NBA Finals in those six years.

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Deitsch also reported that the peak viewership in the game was 19.281 million viewers.

Unfortunately, one of the early headlines was the major injury Tyrese Haliburton suffered in the first quarter, but the game remained back-and-forth until the Thunder began to pull away in the third quarter.

ABC will continue broadcasting the NBA Finals in the future, but a new TV contract is set to kick in this fall, as NBC/Peacock and Amazon will start broadcasting games.

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