ESPN's coverage of the 2025 National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs has given the US pay-TV sports broadcaster its largest ever audience through its first 11 games.
The 11 national broadcasts across ESPN platforms, which include the ESPN and ESPN Deportes linear channels, ESPN+ OTT service, averaged 4.44 million viewers, up 13% on the postseason’s 2024 slate.
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The most recent weekend of action, with games on April 26 and 27, averaged 5.4 million viewers, as many of the first-round series reached fever pitch.
In particular, the Western Conference series between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Lakers has captured viewer attention.
The game four matchup between the two, a 116-113 Timberwolves victory, drew a viewership average of 7.35 million, up 32% on the equivalent game in 2024, a Clippers vs Mavericks fixture starring Luka Doncic, who is now on the Lakers roster.
Among the first-round game 4 fixtures, including the Clippers vs Mavericks game, the Timberwolves' victory was the second most-watched ever.
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By GlobalDataThat game, which peaked at 10.2 million viewers, was the second most-watched NBA fixture of the 2024-25 campaign yet, trailing only the Lakers’ Christmas Day matchup against the Golden State Warriors.
Strong early playoff viewership on ESPN is a major boon to the NBA, which struggled to attract a significant TV audience through most of the 2024-25 regular season.
Despite a late rally, the regular season averaged 1.53 million viewers across national networks ABC, ESPN, and TNT, down 2% from last year, with the year-over-year decline growing to 5% when including the league’s in-house NBA TV channel (from 1.09 to 1.04 million).
After early-season declines of around 20%, NBA viewership then began to recover, with the league achieving its most-watched marquee Christmas Day slate in five years, which reduced the year-over-year decline from double to single-digits.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ shock midseason trade for Slovenian superstar Doncic from the Mavericks was a contributing factor.
Since the trade deadline, NBA regular season games averaged 1.51 million viewers — up 16% from the pre-deadline average, excluding opening night and Christmas games.
ESPN and ABC combined to average 1.71 million viewers for the regular season, the same as last year, with ABC’s audience up 10% to 2.68 million, meanwhile. ESPN and TNT, however, each averaged 1.3 million — both down 7% from last year — and NBA TV averaged 250,000 (down 24%).
The Lakers, which also boast icon LeBron James on the roster, are perhaps the league’s best TV draw, and as such, it remains to be seen what the effect will be on TV ratings if the Timberwolves eliminate the franchise in their April 30 game 5 tie, which is also likely to attract significant interest.
Given that in 2024 ESPN owner Disney agreed a lucrative 11-year media rights deal with the NBA through the 2035-26 season, one which boxed out long-time rival TNT Sports and granted ESPN a plurality share of NBA game broadcasts, it is in the media giant’s interest that NBA audiences remain strong through the playoffs and beyond.
