TV Ratings: NBA Finals draws most viewers for Game 3 since the Michael Jordan era

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Monday’s telecast of the NBA Finals attracted the largest number of television viewers for a third Finals game in nearly 30 years.

ABC and ESPN’s broadcast of the San Antonio Spurs’ 115-111 victory over the New York Knicks averaged 23.79 million viewers, including 1.1 million viewers for the alternative telecast on ESPN. The last time the third game of the series had more viewers was in 1998, when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls famously 96-54 win over the Utah Jazz en route to their second triple-double as NBA champions.

Monday’s match peaked with 26.3 million viewers at 11:15 PM ET, the closing minutes of the contest. In ABC’s 24-year broadcast history of the NBA Finals, the previous high for Game 3 was 20.05 million viewers in 2017 (Golden State-Cleveland).

Through three games — the series will last at least five games after San Antonio’s win on Monday — the NBA Finals are averaging about 19.1 million viewers. That’s second only to the 2017 Finals, which averaged 19.48 million over the first three games.

This year’s Finals currently draw more than twice as many viewers as the 2025 series, which featured the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers, teams from two of the NBA’s smaller media markets. San Antonio is a relatively small market as well, but the Spurs have a championship history (five titles since 1999) and one of the game’s biggest stars, Victor Wimpanyama. New York, of course, is the largest TV market in the United States by a very long shot and is trying to end a 53-year drought.

Game 4 of the series will be played Wednesday night in New York, with Game 5 scheduled for Saturday in San Antonio. If necessary, matches six and seven will be played on June 16 and 19.

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