A seven-game series helped ABCs viewership for Cavaliers-Warriors rebound from some early blowouts to become the most-viewed NBA Finals since '98. Cavs-Warriors averaged 20.22 million viewers this year, marking the best NBA Finals average since the six-game Bulls-Jazz series drew 29.04 million viewers in '98 (Michael Jordan's last title). Cavs-Warriors also is up 1% from 19.94 million viewers for the same matchup last year, which went to six games. The last two years mark ABC's most-viewed NBA Finals since acquiring NBA rights prior to the '02-03 season. While viewership was up for the Finals this year, the rating actually dropped 3% (11.3 vs 11.6). This year's viewership also is up from 17.67 million viewers for the previous seven-game NBA Finals -- Heat-Spurs in '13. Cavs-Warriors also is up from 18.14 million viewers for the seven-game Lakers-Celtics series in '10. In Canada, Cavs-Warriors passed the '10 Lakers-Celtics by 35% to become the country's most-watched NBA Finals on record. Meanwhile, ABC finished with 31.02 million viewers for Game 7 on Sunday, marking the third-best NBA game audience on record, behind only Bulls-Jazz NBA Finals Game 6 in '98 (35.89 million viewers on NBC) and Bulls-Suns NBA Finals Game 6 in '93 (32.1 million viewers on NBC). Cavs-Warriors Game 7 is up from 26.32 million viewers for Heat-Spurs Game 7 (played on a Thursday night) and 28.2 million viewers for Lakers-Celtics Game 7 (also on a Thursday).
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NBA FINALS AUDIENCE TREND ON ABC
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YEAR
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GAMES
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RATING
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VIEWERS (000)
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MATCHUP
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'16
|
7
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11.3
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20,215
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Cavaliers-Warriors
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|
'15
|
6
|
11.6
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19,939
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Warriors-Cavaliers
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|
'14
|
5
|
9.3
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15,524
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Spurs-Heat
|
|
'13
|
7
|
10.5
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17,667
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Heat-Spurs
|
|
'12
|
5
|
10.1
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16,855
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Heat-Thunder
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|
'11
|
6
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10.1
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17,280
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Mavericks-Heat
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|
'10
|
7
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10.6
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18,144
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Lakers-Celtics
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|
'09
|
5
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8.4
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14,347
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Lakers-Magic
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|
'08
|
6
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9.3
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14,941
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Celtics-Lakers
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|
'07
|
4
|
6.2
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9,289
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Spurs-Cavaliers
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|
|
|
|
|
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SOCIAL SCIENCE: During the seven-game series, 43 million people discussed the NBA Finals on Facebook with more than 269 million posts, likes, shares and comments, making Cavaliers-Warriors this year the most-discussed NBA Finals on record for the social media platform. During the Cavs' locker room celebration after Game 7, the team's Facebook Live video drew more than 5 million viewers, 367,000 reactions, 99,000 shares and 53,000 comments. Meanwhile, data from Nielsen Social showed Game 7 was the most-tweeted sports event last week. Game 7 saw 7.48 million event-related tweets sent out in the U.S. during a time frame that spanned three hours before the game to three hours after it ended. That compares with 337,000 event-related tweets sent out about the U.S. Open and 388,000 tweets about Sunday's episode of "Game of Thrones" on HBO. Game 7 peaked with 337,000 tweets globally per minute, making it the top-tweeted moment during the Finals, and most-tweeted U.S. sports moment for '16 to date. Data from MVPindex also shows that during the course of the NBA Finals, both teams combined for 2,146 posts on social media worth more than $126M in social media value. The Warriors posted a total of 1,148 times during the NBA finals across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for an overall value of $84M. The team's Facebook posts were most valuable at $41M, while Instagram posts were worth $33M. The Cavs were a bit behind with 998 posts and $42M of social value. Facebook accounted for $21M of that, while Instagram was $16.6M.
YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT: In the wake of the Cavs' win, ESPN Films will update the intro and ending to "Believeland," the "30 for 30" film that debuted on May 14 with a focus on Cleveland pro sports. The film will have an ending focusing on the NBA Finals and the immediate aftermath. The new version will premiere on ESPN on June 30 at 8:00pm.
