dailyloe.com – The NBA announced a significant viewership increase for the 2025-26 regular season on Wednesday. The league said 170 million people in the U.S. watched games across its four primary broadcast platforms. These platforms are ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock, and NBA TV. The figure represents an 86% rise over the previous season.
This marks the league’s best viewership numbers in 24 years. The season was the first under the NBA’s new 11-year media rights deal. That deal is worth more than $76 billion and was signed in 2024. It kicked in at the start of this season.
Prime Video was part of the NBA’s television rights package for the first time. NBC/Peacock also returned to broadcasting NBA games for the first time in a generation. The league touted the near doubling of television viewership as a success for Year 1 of its new deals.
NBA games across the four platforms achieved the highest average viewership in 13 years. That average viewership was up 35% over the last season. A total of 57 telecasts reached an average of 2 million viewers. This is the most telecasts to hit that mark since the 2011-12 season.
People watched NBA games for more than 920 million hours this season. That is a 25% increase over the previous season. It is also the most hours watched since the 2011-12 season.
The NBA’s social media channels generated a record 228 billion views. This data comes from Videocites. The social media view count is up 13% over last season.
Attendance over the past three seasons in NBA arenas is higher than any other three-season period. The league released these numbers from its headquarters in New York. The announcement was made on April 15, 2026.[]
Source: ESPN
