A tightly contested Game 4 of the NBA Finals wasn’t enough to earn a strong rating on Friday night.
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s series-tying win over the Indiana Pacers averaged 9.41 million viewers on ABC, per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. It’s the most-watched game of the series so far (pending Game 5 figures that have yet to be released), but continues a poor trend from a historical perspective. Friday’s game was down 2% from the Boston Celtics-Dallas Mavericks Game 4 last season, a 38-point rout in an 0-3 series, and was the least-watched NBA Finals Game 4 on-record barring the COVID “bubble” year.
The NBA Finals is now averaging 9.08 million viewers through four games, which is, again, the least-watched Finals series through four games since the “bubble,” and the least-watched in modern viewership history (post-1988) when excluding the anomalous season.
These low viewership figures are coming in despite Nielsen’s recent expansion to its out-of-home viewing measurements, which has provided a significant boost for other live sports properties.
Given just how competitive most games of the series have been, it’s difficult to imagine how dreadful the NBA’s viewership numbers would have been if the Thunder had dominated the Finals like many pundits predicted. Instead, the series still has a chance to partially redeem itself from a viewership perspective if it reaches a seventh game.
Viewership for the Thunder’s Game 5 win on Monday night will be reported when available.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.