The year was 1998. Everyone had a pager, the radio was blasting "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," and the entire world had its eyes glued to a single basketball game. It sounds like hyperbole, doesn't it? But the numbers don't lie. When we talk about the most watched NBA finals, we are really talking about the end of an era—the "Last Dance" of the Chicago Bulls.
The Night the World Stopped
Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz didn't just break records. It shattered them. An average of 35.89 million viewers tuned in to see if Michael Jordan could pull off one last miracle. Honestly, it wasn’t just a basketball game; it was a cultural funeral for the greatest dynasty the league had ever seen.
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The rating for that single game was a staggering 22.3. To put that in perspective for the TikTok generation, the 2024 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Mavericks averaged about a 5.8 rating. That’s a massive gap. Basically, one-third of every household in America with a TV was watching Jordan hit that iconic push-off jumper on Byron Russell.
Why 1998 Remains the King of Most Watched NBA Finals
You’ve gotta wonder why the numbers were so high back then compared to now. I mean, the world population is bigger, and the NBA is technically "global" now, right? It’s complicated. In 1998, we lived in a "monoculture." You had four or five major channels and that was it. No Netflix. No YouTube. No distractions.
The Jordan Factor
Michael Jordan was a "monoculture death star." People who didn't even like sports knew who he was. The 1998 series averaged 29.04 million viewers across the entire six games. That is the highest average for any Finals series in history, period.
- 1993 Finals (Bulls vs. Suns): Averaged 27.2 million.
- 1997 Finals (Bulls vs. Jazz): Averaged 25.6 million.
- 2016 Finals (Cavaliers vs. Warriors): Averaged 20.3 million.
You see the pattern? Jordan is the common denominator in almost every "top 10" list for ratings. The 1993 series against Charles Barkley’s Suns holds the number two spot for a single game, with Game 6 drawing 32.1 million viewers. People just wanted to see if the king would fall.
The Modern Struggle
Fast forward to the 2020s. The world is different. In 2020, the "Bubble" Finals between the Lakers and the Heat hit a historic low. Game 3 of that series drew only 5.94 million viewers. That’s almost painful to look at compared to the 35 million of the late nineties.
Sure, the 2020 Finals happened during a global pandemic in an empty gym in Orlando, which felt weird to everyone. But the downward trend started before that. We have "cord-cutting" now. People watch highlights on Instagram or "X" instead of sitting through a three-hour broadcast with thirty commercials.
The LeBron Era and the Golden State Spike
It’s not all doom and gloom for the modern league. There was a huge resurgence during the mid-2010s. The rivalry between LeBron James and the Golden State Warriors brought back that "must-see TV" feeling.
The 2016 NBA Finals Game 7—the one where LeBron chased down Andre Iguodala for "The Block"—actually pulled in 31.02 million viewers. That is the highest-rated game of the post-Jordan era. It felt like the whole world was watching to see if Cleveland could finally win a title. It was a rare moment where the modern NBA touched the heights of the 90s.
Comparing the Giants
If we look at the most watched series of the ABC era (post-2003), the 2017 Finals takes the trophy. Even though it only lasted five games because Kevin Durant made the Warriors basically unbeatable, it averaged 20.38 million viewers.
- 1998 (NBC): 29.0M avg
- 1993 (NBC): 27.2M avg
- 1987 (CBS): 24.1M avg (Lakers vs. Celtics)
- 2017 (ABC): 20.4M avg
The 1987 series is an interesting one. That was Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird for the last time in a Finals. It was the peak of the 80s rivalry and averaged a 15.9 rating. Even then, with two of the biggest icons ever, they couldn't touch the 1998 Bulls.
Will We Ever See These Numbers Again?
Probably not. Unless the NBA finds a way to count every single person watching a pirated stream or a 10-second clip on social media, those Nielsen numbers from 1998 are safe. The way we consume media is just too fragmented.
The 2025 Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers showed a bit of a bounce back in the later games. Game 7 of that series pulled in 16.35 million viewers. It was the most-watched Finals game in six years, mostly because it was a Game 7. Everyone loves a winner-take-all scenario.
The International Context
The one caveat here is that Nielsen only measures U.S. households. In 2019, when the Toronto Raptors beat the Warriors, the U.S. ratings actually dropped. Why? Because a whole country (Canada) was watching, and those millions of viewers didn't count toward the official U.S. stat. If you added the global audience, the numbers for 2016 or 2019 might look a lot closer to 1998. But for pure American television dominance, the "Last Dance" remains the gold standard.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Analysts
If you’re trying to understand where the league is headed, don’t just look at the raw TV numbers. They don't tell the whole story anymore.
- Watch the Game 7s: Ratings always spike during elimination games. If you want to see the highest level of engagement, look at Game 5, 6, and 7 data.
- Follow the "Superstars": Viewership follows individuals more than teams. Ratings jumped when LeBron went to Miami, and they jumped again when he went back to Cleveland.
- Check Social Engagement: The NBA is the most-followed league on social media. A game might "only" have 12 million TV viewers but could have 100 million impressions on TikTok.
The most watched NBA finals stats serve as a time capsule. They remind us of a time when everyone in the country was talking about the same thing at the water cooler the next morning. While we might never see 35 million people watching a single basketball game again, the drama of the Finals remains the highest peak in American sports outside of the Super Bowl.
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To truly understand the impact of these numbers, you should look into how streaming rights and "out-of-home" viewing (like bars and restaurants) are now being integrated into Nielsen's metrics, as this is the only way modern games will ever have a chance to compete with the 1998 records.