Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren led the Oklahoma City Thunder to its first championship in franchise history on Sunday night, winning a decisive Game 7 over the Indiana Pacers. The ESPN NBA broadcast of the action airing in prime time on ABC and ESPN+ averaged 16.4 million viewers, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. This is the most-viewed NBA Finals game since 2019, which is when Game 6 between the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors averaged 18.34 million viewers on the network.
The final game of the Thunder-Pacers series peaked with 19.3 million viewers during the 9:45 to 10 p.m. EST quarter-hour. Game 6 of the series averaged 9.28 million, down 34% from Warriors-Celtics Game 6 in 2022, but the best-of-seven series as a whole averaged 10.3 million viewers and finished with the seven most-watched broadcasts on television since the first week of May.
Although final viewership data from Nielsen will not be available until Tuesday, the outcome marks the least-watched NBA Finals series excluding seasons directly impacted by the global pandemic (2020, 2021) since 2007 when the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers. Compared to the previous year when the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks, viewership of the NBA Finals on ABC is down by 9.2%
Play-by-play announcer Mike Breen made history by calling his 20th NBA Finals series on ABC, and he worked alongside Doris Burke, Richard Jefferson and Lisa Salters on the lead broadcast team. Studio coverage for the series featured host Malika Andrews with analysts Stephen A. Smith, Bob Myers and Kendrick Perkins, along with contributions from ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania. Inside the NBA, which will be presented on ESPN/ABC next year under a partnership with TNT Sports and the National Basketball Association, is slated to present pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of the NBA Finals beginning next year.
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