NBA Releases Historic Playoff Viewership Numbers

The NBA playoffs have already delivered some exciting postseason action midway through the first round.

All four of the playoff matchups in the Eastern Conference are heading to Game 6. The No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder and No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs have already notched their four wins to move onto the second round, but the other two postseason matchups are also heading toward a sixth game.

These competitive playoff series have yielded some historic TV viewership numbers for the league.

On Thursday morning, the NBA revealed that this year’s postseason has delivered the highest viewership in 33 years - averaging 3.91 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.

The NBA playoffs will continue with three highly-anticipated Game 6 matchups on Thursday night.

The No. 3 seed New York Knicks will look to closeout the No. 6 seed Atlanta Hawks with their third consecutive victory. The Knicks lost two of their first three games in the first-round series, but recovered with back-to-back wins in Game 4 and Game 5.

The No. 7 seed Philadelphia 76ers will try to hold off the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics in a second straight closeout game. The 76ers avoided elimination with a road victory in Game 5, notching a 113-97 final score at the TD Garden.

Finally, Nikola Jokic and the No. 3 seed Denver Nuggets will look to extend their series against the No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves - who are without both Anthony Edwards and DiVincenzo due to injuries. The Nuggets trail 3-2 and need to win each of the next two games in order to advance.

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This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 9:47 AM.