The National Basketball Association said Wednesday that 170 million people in the United States watched at least part of the 2025-26 regular season on ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV, marking an 86 percent increase over the previous year and the league’s largest audience in 24 years.
This season was the first under the NBA’s 11-year, $76 billion-plus media rights agreement signed in 2024. The package brought Amazon Prime Video into the mix for the first time and returned NBC and its Peacock streaming service to NBA coverage for the first time in a generation.
Average viewership across the four outlets climbed 35 percent to the highest level in 13 years, according to the league. Fifty-seven telecasts averaged at least 2 million viewers, the most since the 2011-12 season.
Fans watched more than 920 million hours of NBA game action, up 25 percent year over year and the most since 2011-12. League social media channels generated a record 228 billion views, a 13 percent gain, based on data from Videocites.
The NBA added that combined attendance over the last three seasons set a new high for any comparable span in league history.
Interest in the league’s new in-season competition also grew: viewership of NBA Cup group play games jumped 90 percent. Meanwhile, the All-Star Game on NBC averaged 8.8 million viewers, the event’s largest audience since 2011.
Source: ESPN
