Overview
- More than 60 million people watched nationally televised games in the first month, the most since 2010 and excluding the 2011–12 Christmas start.
- Across NBCUniversal, ESPN and Prime Video, games averaged a Nielsen‑estimated 1.91 million viewers, up about 30% year over year.
- Including NBA TV lifts the increase to 52%, with Sports Media Watch reporting a 60.27 million unique‑viewer total while noting NBA TV is airing fewer games this season.
- The league cites record digital traction with roughly 30 billion social views, merchandise sales on NBAStore.com up more than 20%, and League Pass subscriptions up 10% with time spent up 8%.
- Comparisons carry caveats given Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel methodology and NBC’s use of Adobe Analytics for streaming, which complicate clean, cross‑platform trends; in‑arena attendance remains near 97% capacity with 10 teams sold out at every home game.