The NBA just wrapped up a historic 2026 regular season, not on the court, but in living rooms across America. The league scored its biggest television audience in 24 years, a massive win that signals basketball's soaring popularity.
In total, a staggering 170 million unique viewers in the U.S. tuned in to watch games across networks like ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, Prime Video, and NBA TV. This represents a powerful resurgence for regular season viewership, highlighting the league's compelling mix of superstar talent and intense competition.
Drilling down into the numbers, the average audience per game saw a significant jump, averaging 1.78 million viewers. That's a sharp 16% increase compared to the previous season. This surge is a testament to the captivating storylines, from thrilling playoff races to the emergence of new rivalries, that kept fans glued to their screens all season long.
