This is a list of television ratings for NBA Finals in the United States based on Nielsen viewing data.
The highest rated and most watched NBA Final series was 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, the series averaged an 18.7 rating / 33 share and 29.04 million viewers on NBC. The lowest rated and least watched NBA Final series was 2007 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, the series averaged a 6.2 rating / 11 share and 9.29 million viewers on ABC.
The highest rated and most watched NBA Final game was Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals which averaged a 22.3 rating / 38 share and 35.89 million viewers on Sunday night. The lowest rated and least watched NBA Final game was Game 2 of the 2003 NBA Finals which averaged a 5.2 rating / 10 share and 8.06 million viewers on Friday night.
The 1987 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics was the highest rated and most watched NBA Final series on CBS averaging a 16.7 rating / 35 share and 24.12 million viewers. Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals registered the network's highest rated and most watched NBA game with a 21.2 rating / 37 share.
The 2015 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers was the highest rated NBA Final series on ABC averaging an 11.6 rating / 21 share and 19.94 million viewers. The 2016 NBA Finals of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors rematch was the most watched NBA Final series on ABC averaging an 11.4 rating / 21 share and 20.28 million viewers. Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals registered the network's highest rated and most watched NBA game with an average 15.8 rating / 29 share and 31.02 million viewers while peaking with a whopping 22.5 rating / ~41 share and 44.51 million viewers in the last 10 minutes of the game. It was the first basketball game to draw more than 30 million average viewers in 18 years, and only the seventh sports telecast (excluding NFL and Olympics) to have done so since 1998.
Game-by-game breakdown by year (1974 - present)
Figures are expressed as Rating/Share. Rating represents the percentage of US TV households that watched the game, Share represents the percentage of TV sets in use that were tuned to the game.
Viewers = average viewership (in millions), Households = average TV households (in millions).
Note that game-by-game viewership for pre-2000 series were generally unavailable.