NBA All-Star Game Viewership Up 20% In 2024

The 2024 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night saw a 20% increase in viewership compared to last year’s event. Although the numbers were nowhere close to Super Bowl LVIII, viewership for the NBA All-Star Game jumped double-digits. It could have been much worse, all things considered.

The Eastern Conference won 211-186 over the West in Indianapolis in the highest-scoring All-Star Game to date. This year’s event averaged 5.5 million viewers across TNT, TBS, and truTV, per Nielsen — a 20% increase from last year’s Salt Lake City game on TNT and TBS, the least-watched All-Star Game (4.6 million).

NBA All-Star Game viewership up double-digits from last year’s low.
— Still the second-least watched All-Star Game
— Biggest year-over-year increase for the All-Star Game since 2011
— Top NBA audience of season https://t.co/o8b2sJrWdO

— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) February 20, 2024

All-Star Saturday Night was up 35% from last year. It peaked with an audience of 5.4 million viewers when Stephen Curry competed against Sabrina Ionescu in the 3-point competition from 10:00-10:15 p.m. ET.

The NBA announced it had 10 million unique viewers overall on Saturday night, up 54% from last year.

Interesting enough, the 1993 NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City is the most-watched All-Star Game in league history, with 22.91 million viewers tuning in. The East defeated the West 135-132 in overtime on NBC.

Despite the gain, this year’s All-Star Game still garnered the second-fewest viewers in league history. The least-watched All-Star Game was the 2021 matchup, which averaged 6.13 million. The 2024 NBA All-Star Game saw a 33% increase, the largest in a year since 2011.

2024 NBA All-Star Game became the fifth since 2000 to see a double-digit increase in viewership

It was only the fifth time since 2000 that the NBA All-Star Game has generated a double-digit increase in viewership, joining 2002 (+69%), 2009 (+20%), 2011, and 2013 (+13%), per Sports Media Watch.

The All-Star Game is usually the highest-rated basketball game for the younger demographics. This year’s game was the most-watched NBA game on any network — outperforming Celtics-Lakers on ABC Christmas Day (5.01 million).

Furthermore, this year’s NFL Pro Bowl Games, which now consists of a flag football game combined with skills competitions, beat out the NBA All-Star Game.

The Pro Bowl Games saw 5.79 million viewers two weeks before the NBA All-Star Game.

NBA says it had 10 million unique viewers for All-Star Saturday across TNT/truTV/BR Sports on Max — up 54% on last year. NBA says it was most watched All-Star Saturday in 4 years. Curious if and how much ratings are up tonight as NBA makes its effort to make ASG more competitive.

— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) February 19, 2024

According to the analytics, it should be noted that the MLB has the most-watched All-Star Game. Last summer’s game attracted 7.01 million viewers.

Even then, the numbers for the MLB All-Star Game are not what they once were. Baseball is still America’s pastime, but fans are just losing interest in the All-Star Game.

All MLB All-Star Games prior to 2016 saw at least 10 million viewers. That changed in 2016 when the viewership average fell to 8.7 million.

The 1976 MLB All-Star Game remains the most-viewed All-Star Game in league history, with 36.33 million people tuning in to watch.