ABC’s presentation of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Game 7 Championship victory over the Indiana Pacers is the most-watched NBA Finals game in six years, since 2019, according to preliminary data from Nielsen. The winner-take-all Game 7 averaged 16,353,000 viewers and peaked with 19,281,000 viewers from 9:45-10 p.m. ET across ABC and ESPN+.
The seven-game series averaged 10,266,000 viewers and delivered the seven most-watched broadcasts on all of television since the first week of May. The audience for the 2025 NBA Playoffs across ESPN and ABC – 34 games – averaged 6,118,000 viewers, up 10 percent from 2024.
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There’s a parade in Oklahoma City on Tuesday to celebrate the newly crowned champion Thunder, and in every other NBA city there’s going a parade of movement — some of which already has started — over the coming weeks to try to catch the champs.
“These are difficult equations,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said as the Warriors were starting their summer more than a month ago. “You look around the league, and you see some teams that have mortgaged their future, and they’re in some trouble. There are other teams that have done so, and they’re championship contenders.”
Outside of Oklahoma City — where virtually the entire rotation is expected to be back, led by MVP, Finals MVP, scoring champion and NBA champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who just put together one of the best individual seasons of all time — there are plenty of questions everywhere.
The final viewership from Nielsen will be available on Tuesday, June 24. ESPN and ABC’s coverage of the NBA continues Wednesday, June 25 and Thursday, June 26, with the 2025 NBA Draft
