NBA

NBA Christmas Day: Final ratings reveal Lakers vs. Warriors peaked at 8.45 million viewers

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Antonio Kozlow
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Antonio Kozlow Sports Editor

Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.

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Sports Editor

Updated02 Jan 2025

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The final numbers on the NBA’s five-game Christmas Day have finally arrived, as Nielsen published at the start of the week that the basketball slate averaged about 5.25 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and other associated platforms.

The matches included a thrilling LeBron vs Curry battle with Lakers at Golden State, Denver at Phoenix, Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, and San Antonio at New York in Victor Wembanyama’s holiday debut,.

However, it was during the purple and gold’s tight 115-113 victory over the Warriors which really took the prize, as the contest averaged 7.91 million viewers and peaked with about 8.45 million viewers toward the end of the match, the league later announced.

After this Christmas Day clash, James addressed the competition with the football league. “I love the NFL,” the superstar told the press in his televised postgame interview. “But Christmas is our day.”

Even though the NBA’s increase was impressive, it still is no match for the numbers put up by American Football games, which averaged at least 65 million U.S. viewers. “The numbers speak for themselves and LeBron can have his own view, and I’m sure more people will look at that because of this,” said Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media.

He then added: “But, you know, we’re focused on the NFL and we’re thrilled with the results this year with the Christmas on Netflix and we’re excited to continue to build that over the next couple of years.”

After beating Denver 110-100 on Christmas Day, Phoenix superstar Kevin Durant was asked about the NBA viewership falling down this campaign. The 36-year-old didn’t hesitate to speak his mind over the ratings decline.

“It’s a weird dialogue around the league and the viewership and I see a lot of people blaming the players for it,” the future NBA Hall of Famer told the press. “Something that big, it’s not just one component in why it’s going that way.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed the NBA’s ratings drop last month, explaining how they are at an “inflection point”

Since the start of the 2024-25 season, the Front Office Sports reported ESPN’s NBA viewership had decreased 28% a month into the campaign. However, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver knows things will eventually look up.

The basketball league has been struggling to find out what is the root cause of their recent decline in viewership during this year, as addressed last month by the executive himself. “Ratings are down a bit at beginning of the season. But cable television viewership is down double digits so far this year versus last year,” said the NBA Commissioner.

He then added: “You know, we’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programing on streaming than they are on traditional television. And it’s a reason why for our new television deals, which we enter into next year, every game is going to be available on a streaming service.”