The opening of the 2022-23 NBA season proved to be the league’s most-watched Opening Night in five years and its most-watched Opening Night game in three years.
The NBA’s Opening Night doubleheader averaged 3.3 million viewers on TNT, representing a 17% jump from last year and is the highest average since 2017.
The effort was led by the Sixers-Celtics opener which grabbed 2.98 million viewers, a jump of 36% from last year and was the most-watched early game on Opening Night since Cavaliers-Celtics in 2017 (5.6 million).
The Lakers-Warriors game averaged 3.55 million viewers, up 4% from the same matchup last year. That game was also the NBA’s largest Opening Night audience since 2019 (Clippers-Lakers, 3.58 million). Tuesday night’s Lakers-Warriors game was TNT’s most-watched NBA game overall since that 2019 Opening Night.
