Following the conclusion of the 2024-25 NBA regular season on Sunday, the league released lists of the top five plays and top 10 players that drew the most views on its digital and social channels, including its app. And there are some interesting names on both lists. To start with, the most-viewed plays were led by a video showing off two 360 layups from the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant in one Nov. 4 game against the Brooklyn Nets:
That video has 280,000 views on YouTube alone, but went even bigger on other platforms such as Facebook, where it has 1.1 million likes. Overall, the league says it pulled in 286 million views across all platforms, more than double the second-place highlight (Steph Curry’s behind-the-back dribble to buzzer-beating floater for the Golden State Warriors against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 28, which had 136 million views):
The other three top-five plays were a half-court game-winner from the Chicago Bulls’ Josh Giddey on March 27 against the Los Angeles Lakers (70 million views), a left-handed dunk from the Lakers’ LeBron James against the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 7 (61 million views), and a three-quarter-court shot from the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić against the Utah Jazz on March 28 (37 million views). But the Morant video’s views beat the No. 2 and No. 3 highlights combined.
When it came to the most-viewed players, James took the top spot with 3.23 billion views, with Curry second with 2.56 billion. But Luka Dončić, Victor Wembanyama, Jokić, Morant, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were close behind, all topping a billion. Here’s that list:
- LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers): 3.23B views
- Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors): 2.56B views
- Luka Dončić (Los Angeles Lakers): 1.82B views
- Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs): 1.47B views
- Nikola Jokić (Denver Nuggets): 1.20B views
- Ja Morant (Memphis Grizzlies): 1.09B views
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder): 1.06B views
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks): 897M views
- Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves): 800M views
- Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics): 766M views
Digital viewership stats are notably finicky in terms of overall numbers, especially when it comes to data collected across digital and social platforms that each have their own definitions of a view (and one much different than the average minute audience that’s the key part of Nielsen’s TV viewership numbers). But numbers for individual players and plays across these platforms certainly can be compared using the same methodology, and the results here have some interesting things to say on which plays and players those engaging with the NBA’s digital and social channels focused on.
In particular, it’s significant to see Morant dominate the top play numbers and place sixth in the most-viewed numbers. The Grizzlies (who finished eighth in the Western Conference and are heading for the play-in) don’t always get a lot of national discussion, apart from complaints on Morant’s celebrations. It’s also notable to see Curry (who finished seventh in the West with the Warriors) second in both play views and overall views.
And Gilgeous-Alexander, who led the Thunder to a NBA-best 68-14 regular-season mark, cracking the top-10 viewed players shows there’s plenty of interest in that team, even if they also get far less national studio discussion than you might think. Overall, these numbers suggest that while there’s certainly interest in the Lakers, James, and Dončić, NBA fans engaging with the league digitally are maybe looking a bit wider than some of the studio shows.