The NBA Finals Game 7 featuring the Pacers and the Thunder attracted a whopping 19.28 million viewers, making it the most-watched NBA game since 2019, based on data from Nielsen. The average audience on ABC and ESPN+ was 16.35 million.
This average greatly surpasses viewership from recent years, with the previous high being Game 6 of this series, which had 13.99 million viewers between the Celtics and Warriors.
The last time an NBA Finals game drew this level of attention was back in 2019 when Game 6 went between the Raptors and Warriors. Interestingly, Sunday’s game ranks as the lowest NBA Finals Game 7 in the Nielsen People Meter era, which dates back to 1988.
This was the first Game 7 in the Finals since 2016 when LeBron James powered the Cavaliers through a comeback against the Warriors after sitting at a 3-1 deficit. Given the viewer patterns for the first six games, it was somewhat surprising to see such a significant increase in numbers for Game 7, especially since earlier games hadn’t even hit the 10 million mark, with Game 5 being the most popular before this at just under 10 million.
The excitement of Game 7 has bumped the average viewership for the entire series to about 10.27 million, although that’s still a decrease from last year’s Finals, where the Celtics and Mavericks pulled in 11.31 million on average.
The Thunder clinched their first championship title in franchise history by defeating the Pacers 103-91 in this decisive game. Meanwhile, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander capped off his outstanding regular season with an MVP award.
In a notable setback for the Pacers, star player Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles just minutes into the game, after putting up nine points in just seven minutes of play.
Despite the injury, the game maintained its intensity, with the Pacers holding a lead at halftime. However, the Thunder ultimately proved too strong for the undermanned Indiana squad.
