Despite only going five games, including some early blowouts, the rubber match in the Warriors-Cavaliers series proved to be the most-viewed NBA Finals since Michael Jordan's final title with the Bulls in '98. The '17 NBA Finals averaged 20.41 million viewers on ABC, which is the best since the six-game Bulls-Jazz series averaged 29.04 million viewers in '98. This year's five-game set is up 1% from 20.22 million viewers for last year's seven-game series, and up 2% from 19.94 million viewers for the six-game Warriors-Cavs series in '15. The NBA Finals have now averaged over 20 million viewers for the first time since those late '90s Bulls teams. When WatchESPN is factored in (averaging minute streaming), the five-game series this year averaged 20.84 million viewers. Meanwhile, Game 7 on Monday night finished with 24.47 million viewers on ABC, up 19% from the comparable Game 5 last year and good enough to be the best for any Game 5 since '98. Combined with WatchESPN streaming, the game averaged just over 25 million viewers.
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NBA FINALS AUDIENCE TREND ON ABC
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YEAR
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GAMES
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VIEWERS (000)
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MATCHUP
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'17
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5
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20,406
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Warriors-Cavaliers
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'16
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7
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20,215
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Cavaliers-Warriors
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'15
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6
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19,939
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Warriors-Cavaliers
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'14
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5
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15,524
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Spurs-Heat
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'13
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7
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17,667
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Heat-Spurs
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'12
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5
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16,855
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Heat-Thunder
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'11
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6
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17,280
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Mavericks-Heat
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'10
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7
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18,144
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Lakers-Celtics
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FAR FAR AWAY: China-based streaming platform Tencent had its most-viewed NBA Finals on record for the '17 Warriors-Cavs matchup. Tencent’s live game coverage received 190.9 million total views. The platform averaged 12.2 million unique viewers per game, up 30% from last year’s seven-game series. Game 5 was the most-viewed NBA game ever on digital in China with 50.6 million total views and 15.9 million unique viewers. The new mark surpassed the previous record of 15.3 million unique viewers for Game 7 last year. Meanwhile, the #NBAFinals hashtag on China-based social media platform Sina Weibo generated a record 2.5 billion impressions, up 13% compared to 2.2 billion for last year's Finals.
A LONG ENGAGEMENT: The '17 NBA Finals generated 43.1 million social engagements, up from 39.9 million last year, according to data from measurement firm 4C Insights. The Warriors generated the most buzz on social during the series with 8 million social engagements, compared to 7.2 million for the Cavs. The only time the Cavs overtook the Warriors on social was during Game 5. Among brands advertising during the Finals, State Farm, Toyota, KFC and Nissan were the most engaged. State Farm led the way with 24,800 engagements, while Toyota had 15,500, KFC had 14,400 and Nissan had 12,000. While not among the top brands in terms of engagement, Jagermeister's three spots airing during the Finals led to the most lift among brands in engagement between the five minutes prior to and five minutes after their ad aired each time. So Jagermeister had a 1,833% lift, meaning the brand's TV spots increased their social engagement by an average of 1,833% in the five minutes following the start of each ad. Captain Morgan and Mtn. Dew also saw a strong lift before and after their spots during the Finals.
