Ever since 2012, the NBA’s viewership ratings have been on a steady decline in the regular season and the NBA Finals viewership has been decreasing since 2015.
Why is this the case? There are a multitude of reasons that have played a role in the dwindling of the NBA’s viewership ratings like advertising, ease of viewing, play style and the decisions made by the players. All of these factors come together to decrease the viewership and fanbase for the NBA.
One of the obvious factors is the lack of advertising and nationally televised games for young and upcoming teams and players. One big example of this is the Lakers getting the most nationally televised games. After a first-round loss to the Nuggets, the Lakers entered the 2024-2025 season with 39 nationally televised games scheduled, while the top two teams in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder had 41 combined.
This discrepancy shows the NBA’s lack of advertising for these new and exciting small-market teams. When the NBA had its highest viewership in the 21st century, in 2012, the NBA was more balanced with which teams got nationally televised games, the league leader, which was the Lakers, only had 25 nationally televised games, compared to the 39 games they have now.
Another reason why the viewership of the NBA keeps going down is the ability to watch the games. If there is a team that is not nationally televised that one would like to watch, the only reliable way to do that is to buy NBA league pass which costs around $16.99-24.99 a month. This makes it very difficult for some individuals to watch the NBA, especially teams that are not local.
The NBA’s transitioning of play style has been another contributing factor to the drop in ratings. The NBA has averaged a record of 37.4 3PA per game for each team. This has led to a lack of physicality as teams are not going to the paint as much as it is more efficient to shoot from beyond the arc. This creates a dull fan experience for many viewers.
One final reason why the NBA has seen a decline in viewership is the load management done by many stars in the league. In 2023, all-stars in the NBA had an average of 64.4 games played in that season, and when this is compared to 20 years earlier in 2003, all-stars on average played 79.2 games in that season, almost 15 more games played than 2023.
This is the result of many players taking games off to rest and make sure that they can be healthy for the most important games of the season, the playoffs. Though it is smart to want to stay healthy for longer periods of time, this means that many games will not feature the superstar player that many are watching, which results in individuals not watching the game at all.
These reasons all lead to the decline of the NBA’s viewership. All of these can be repaired though, by balancing the nationally televised games and advertising the next generation of basketball players that will be the face of the NBA when players like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant ultimately retire.
