NBA In-Season Tournament Final Ratings Were Just Good Enough to Call It a Win

The numbers are in from the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament Final. Many in the league offices surely awaited this news with bated breath because viewership numbers, above all else, would determine how successful the entire endeavor was. The players passed the sniff test in terms of taking it seriously, and the first round of elimination games that took place on home court featured the sort of uproarious crowds we never see shy of April. But it's all about the eyeballs, baby.

In the end, the final numbers just squeaked over the threshold to qualify as a victory. Just over four million people tuned in to watch the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers and become the first holders of the NBA Cup.

Not eye-popping numbers by any measure and they obviously pale in comparison to the other sports-viewing happening this time of year. Twice as many people would watch the two worst NFL teams face off in the rain. But the NBA isn't trying to get NFL numbers with the IST. It's trying to raise the numbers relative to past viewership, and through that lens the mission was definitely accomplished. As pointed out by Sports Media Watch, Lakers-Pacers was the most-watched regular season game (not counting Christmas Day games) in six years. Additionally, viewership was up by 46 percent compared to last year's game in the same timeslot on the same weekend:

Saturday’s Pacers-Lakers NBA In-Season Tournament final averaged a 2.5 rating and 4.58 million viewers across ABC (2.2, 4.14M) and ESPN2 (0.26, 439K), marking the largest NBA audience outside of Christmas and the postseason since Opening Night in 2017 (Celtics-Cavaliers: 5.60M).

Ratings jumped 44% and viewership 46% from a Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals rematch in the same window last season (1.7, 3.14M). Even excluding the ESPN2 simulcast, the ABC-only figures increased 29% and 32% respectively.

That is, at its core, what the NBA wanted-- more people to watch a game in early December. If they succeeded in that endeavor, it's proof of concept that there will be a larger audience than normal if they do things differently. The fact that the numbers were this high despite the game happening on a Saturday night and the score not being all too close makes it all the more celebration-worthy for the league.

It was not a resounding victory, of course. Ethan Strauss doesn't have to yell at me about how the NBA media is pretending it's all sunshine and rainbows. It is quite easy to imagine a universe in which these numbers were significantly lower if the Lakers didn't make it to the final. The viewership numbers from the semifinals games that started at 2pm local time on Thursday are definitely subpar. There are negative consequences in the scheduling realm (like the New York Knicks getting two extra road games against the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks as a reward for making it to the knockout round) that will be felt down the road.

But the IST had one goal above all others-- get more eyeballs on the screen than normal. It definitely did that, and the NBA will be taking a victory lap as a result. Because the league did win. Even if they didn't win big.