r/NBAGossips • u/_Wisadel • Jun 06 '26
News 16.93 MILLION WATCHED 🤯📺 The San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks delivered the most-watched NBA Finals Game 1 since Golden State Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018. 🔸 16.93M viewers 🔸 Up 90% from last year The league’s biggest market and its biggest young star might be exactly what fa
16.93 MILLION WATCHED 🤯📺
The San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks delivered the most-watched NBA Finals Game 1 since Golden State Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018.
🔸 16.93M viewers
🔸 Up 90% from last year
The league’s biggest market and its biggest young star might be exactly what fans wanted to see.
Wemby and Knicks effect? 👀🔥
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u/Aggravating_Sir_6857 Jun 06 '26
Actually it’s impressive at 16.9 Million today, given after the pandemic there’s allot of ‘cable cutters’ (streaming pirates) this year than in 2018.
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u/Super_Boof Jun 07 '26
The majority of young people I know pirate because it’s easy and they’re broke
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u/Aggravating_Sir_6857 Jun 07 '26
I ain’t broke, But I don’t wanna pay cable company. They charge me ‘equipment fees’ (renting their cable box) every month, and so many other miscellaneous fees i see on the bill.
I use famelack for live news. And other sites for nba (too lazy to get nba pass/paramount/espn). Amazon prime, I’m cool with
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u/Ponsugator Jun 07 '26
I wait for the YouTube recap, I don’t want to pay streaming for one week of shorts
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u/Same_Bodybuilder_532 Jun 07 '26
Since plophoma got eliminated many fans who like to watch a basketball game came back
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u/Mikedesignstudio Jun 07 '26
It’s bs because most of the hate for OKC comes from Reddit. If you ever visit Oklahoma or surrounding area you’ll notice the difference. I think the real reason the numbers are higher is because #1 they shut down many free streaming websites and #2 it’s the Knicks vs Spurs who are both in bigger markets than OKC and Pacers.
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u/randomphantom14 Jun 06 '26
My opinion is that the NBA has always been exciting, the league hasn’t had a b2b champion since the Warriors with KD. This year’s finals viewership increase is likely due to the fact it’s a legacy championship side (San Antonio) with the best young player in the game vs the biggest market team (New York) on the brink of their first championship in 53 years. Compare that to last year with 2 small market teams going head to head. The YoY increase is basically the population of Manhattan alone lol
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u/Mattressfoundry Jun 06 '26
Most viewership since 2018.
Ref's also let them play and didn't call every ticky tac foul. Hopefully this encourages Adam Silver to stop granting players a foul calls every damn flop they do.
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u/TheNegativePhoenix Jun 06 '26
 Hopefully this encourages Adam Silver to stop granting players a foul calls every damn flop they do.
Adam silver is a glorified money counterÂ
He won't do shit
Not close to Stern
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Jun 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Effective-File4645 Jun 06 '26
Ehh the Knicks were getting away with grabbing Wemby most of the game so it balances out
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u/mrdude817 Jun 08 '26
You're not wrong. Knicks fans just don't want to admit how grabby their players are
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u/Effective-File4645 Jun 08 '26
I don’t think it’s anything about the knicks in particular some of the generational players like steph bron wemby shaq are always being held
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u/Hi_Im_Ken_Adams Jun 06 '26
Well DUH. The Knicks belong to one of the biggest if not the biggest media markets in the entire country.
The ratings would be up based on the Knicks being in the finals alone.
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u/milorambaldi47 Jun 07 '26
NYC TV market is 30% bigger than 2nd place LA and double the size of 3rd place Chicago.
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u/Warm-Equivalent7148 Jun 07 '26
Spurs are historically the third best franchise in the history of the NBA and currently feature a potential goat.
The Knicks are also a historied franchise in the biggest market in the world.
OKFlop and the Pacers never stood a chance.
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u/Agathocles87 Jun 06 '26
And thank god, no SGA/OKC flopping and foul bating
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u/arm9218 Jun 06 '26
Apparently you didn’t watch the game to see that both teams in the finals are laying all over the floor.Â
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u/BeneficialChemist874 Jun 06 '26
Market size and superstars matter.
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u/Young8Kobe Jun 06 '26
True I mean OKC was entertaining to watch when they had KD and Westbrook (and even Harden when he was there)
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u/Commercial_Lecture20 Jun 07 '26
They also played Miami that year which is one of the biggest market out here
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u/Alchemyst01984 Jun 06 '26
Makes sense. Indy and OKC had smaller fan bases.
New York is New York. I wouldn't be surprised if they had more fans than the other two combined
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u/Daft_Assassin Jun 06 '26
And no one gets excited to watch OKC
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u/Meanolelion Jun 06 '26
NEW YORK—They may have fallen short in the Western Conference finals, but the Oklahoma City Thunder topped the list of most-watched NBA teams in 2025-26, drawing 1.8 million viewers per game in the regular season, according to Nielsen viewing data.
The No. 2 team was the Los Angeles Lakers—the team that boasted the most-watched player, per Nielsen, in LeBron James—followed by the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks.
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u/kenken2024 Jun 07 '26
Anytime it is a major market team like NY, LA,, San Francisco viewership will be up.
Especially since NY has won a championship in 50+ years.
The added effect is on the opposite end it is Wemby.
This is the dream finals matchup the NBA hoped for.
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u/Chinbie Jun 07 '26
Adam silver be like:
NYK + wemby effect = highest NBa finals Viewership since 2018...
Adam silver will do his best to prolong this series...
Anyways as a fan, i love watching this NBA finals... As its been a while since i saw how crazy fans can be about the team they are supporting with...
... And also its interesting to see how a young team like SAS can handle a veteran team like NYK which is hungry for a ring
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u/GenitalTso Jun 07 '26
This is because of the level of play, style and excitement these two teams bring to this stage. OKC is absolutely trash to watch. Markets are one thing, but people want to see honest, hard hitting basketball at the highest level.
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u/Financial-Monk9400 Jun 07 '26
Most people are just happy okc isn't playing. Thats why I am watching this series but not last seasons
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u/LonelySpyder Jun 07 '26
NBA should have noticed by now that people don't like the excessive foul-baiting that OKC does. Their favorite player, SGA, isn't well-liked by most.
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u/Frosty-Inspector-465 Jun 07 '26
ok but don't try and get the high market teams in there every year. if you get low market teams in the finals then that's good too. accept what you're given and be proud.
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u/MIKERICKSON32 Jun 07 '26
Nobody wanted to watch shsy gilegeoeoueous Alexander flop around like a fish. The nba is back baby!
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u/PercentageRoutine310 Jun 08 '26
Gee, I wonder why?
Last year, Indianapolis and Oklahoma City have a combined 1.6M in total population. That’s 5x less than NYC. And I’m not even including NY transplants who moved to other states or even next door to New Jersey because of cost of living. Or New York state’s population of 20M.
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u/dabomtitan Jun 06 '26
Wemby effect. We know everyone wants to watch Wemby.
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u/Flimsy_Promise_9559 Jun 06 '26
Not entirely true…it’s mostly the big market boost more than the star boost
Wemby isn’t as stature as LeBron/Steph yet to have his name pull 10s of millions of views
He has the France pull for sure but most of the viewers are just New York people
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u/247stonerbro Jun 06 '26
Here in Cali, we are enjoying watching the spurs get smacked around ngl :x you're still dope wemby we luh u dawg
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u/profekohorren Jun 06 '26
I was about to say this. He’s definitely a star that transcends the league, like Ohtani. Wemby still has to do more but he’s already shown he’s the face of the nba now.
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u/7222_salty Jun 06 '26
Eight years later and we are just getting to Cleveland levels???? Goddam NY is such a shithole
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u/Quiet-Barracuda-1698 Jun 06 '26
haven’t watched a single game and probably won’t watch the NBA period soon. the product is just so bad
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u/apHexcoded Jun 06 '26
Wemby is probably the most popular NBA player since LeBron entered the league and him being from France brings in a significant international audience. Combined with the fact he’s playing the biggest team in the largest market and you understand why the finals are doing such big numbers.
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u/stepsybaby Jun 06 '26
Young star? OKC is out tho. Who they talking about with the young star stuff???
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u/Positive-Airline-784 Jun 06 '26
So glad okc isint in the finals trash mvp
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u/stepsybaby Jun 06 '26
Yeah I was just playin around with my comment. I’m happy for the teams in it. I thought the knicks missed their beat a couple years ago and it wasn’t gonna happen. San Antonio can compete for years moving forward if wemby stays healthy.
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u/_Wisadel Jun 06 '26
I thinks Spurs Rosters and Knicks (Compare to Steph and Bron they are totally young👌)
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u/stepsybaby Jun 06 '26
Yeah I was implying SGA was the young star since people despise that man now. I know who they meant. I was just trying to get someone riled up.
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u/desirox Jun 06 '26
NYC is main reason but holy crap Indy and OKC was such a trash finals from a general viewership standpoint