NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association (NBA) celebrated a significant milestone, achieving its best Christmas Day viewership numbers in 15 years, an announcement made by the league on Wednesday. The festive five-game slate, broadcast across major networks ABC and ESPN, drew a massive audience of over 47 million people in the United States who watched at least some portion of the coverage. This substantial engagement represents an impressive 45% increase in total viewership compared to the previous year's Christmas Day programming.

Beyond the overall reach, the average viewership for the games also saw a healthy uptick, with approximately 5.5 million viewers per game, marking a 4% rise from a year ago. Several individual matchups stood out for setting new records within their respective time slots. The Cleveland-New York contest, which commenced at noon Eastern, became the most-watched Christmas game ever for that specific starting time, captivating an average of 6.4 million viewers.

Further highlighting the strong audience appeal, the game between San Antonio and Oklahoma City emerged as the most-watched in the 2:30 p.m. Christmas time slot since 2017. Similarly, the Dallas-Golden State matchup garnered the highest viewership for the 5 p.m. slot since 2019, demonstrating the consistent popularity of NBA Christmas Day basketball across different broadcast windows throughout the day.

The NBA's success extended beyond traditional television, dominating the digital landscape as well. The league proudly claimed the title of the "most-viewed brand across social media" on Christmas Day. Its extensive social media content generated an astounding 1.6 billion views, which signifies a remarkable 23% increase over the social media engagement observed on Christmas 2024. These comprehensive figures underscore a highly successful Christmas Day for the NBA, showcasing its robust performance on both linear television and digital platforms.