The Christmas Day game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors garnered the highest ratings of any regular season game in five years, the NBA announced on Thursday.
The thriller averaged 7.76 million viewers and peaked towards the conclusion of the game at 8.32 million viewers. These are the highest regular season totals in five years and was an increase of 499% compared to the 5 p.m. PT Christmas Day game from 2023.
LeBron James and Stephen Curry have always been ratings gold for the NBA and Christmas Day continued to prove that trend. However, it wasn’t just the Lakers and Warriors superstars that brought in the viewers, as the entire day was up 84% compared to last season.
The five Christmas Day games averaged 5.25 million viewers. The opener — the New York Knicks vs. Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs — received a huge increase from last season as well, garnering 4.91 million average viewers, making it the most-watched Christmas Day opener in 13 years and up 98% vs. the comparable window last year.
The finale — Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns vs. Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets — also received a massive bump of 161$ to 3.84 million viewers, making it the most watched late-slate Christmas Day game ever.
The middle two games — Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves against Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks, as well as the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers — had modest increases of 3% and 6%, respectively. But the 11:30 a.m. PT and the 2:00 p.m. PT tipoffs are considered the primetime slots of Christmas Day that always have higher ratings.
Wednesday’s performance by the NBA — specifically the Lakers and Warriors — was much-needed after ratings drops had dominated the league’s conversation over the last few weeks. While they did not outperform the NFL in the slightest on Christmas Day, it was still an important day to show that the league can garner viewership on its biggest days.
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The NBA’s Christmas Day slate was electric in 2024. Four of the five games came down to the wire, including LeBron and the Lakers needing a game-winning bucket from Austin Reaves to steal a win over the Warriors. It was an incredible day for the league.
And what made it even better is that the NBA had an incredible Christmas Day despite efforts from the NFL to take over the holiday slate. The NFL scheduled two marquee matchups — Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans — for a morning and afternoon game. In a move that felt almost intentional, they broadcast the games on Netflix, making it much harder to flip between NFL and NBA on a TV.
The NBA had a phenomenal Christmas, with the NFL games being two huge blowouts. And LeBron made sure to mention this in his postgame interview after the Lakers’ thrilling victory in San Francisco.
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