NBC’s bet on the NBA is paying off, with Tuesday’s first set of games scoring the biggest tip-off doubleheader audience the league has seen in 15 years.
As the NBA returned to NBC and debuted on Peacock on Tuesday with matchups between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets, the doubleheader averaged 5.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen big data plus panel viewing info and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
The games brought in the largest average audience for the NBA tip-off doubleheader since 2010, which averaged 5.7 million viewers when LeBron James made his debut with the Miami Heat in the opener.
Additionally, the doubleheader scored an average minute audience (AMA) of 1.0 million viewers, based on data from Adobe Analytics, becoming NBC Sports’ largest simulstream audience ever, with the exception of NFL games and the Olympics.
The first game of the night, Thunder vs. Rockets, which became the sixth tip-off game to reach double overtime in NBA history and the first since 2005, averaged 5.9 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The double overtime boosted the score to the night’s peak audience of 7.1 million viewers from 10:45-11 p.m. ET as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder to victory over the Rockets.
The Golden State Warriors–Los Angeles Lakers game then followed up with an average of 5.1 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to figures measured from 11:02 p.m. ET — when the game was joined in progress on NBC — through its conclusion at 12:42 a.m. ET.
With broadcast numbers alone, NBC was the highest-rated primetime network on Tuesday in the key demo among adults 18-49. And on social media, the “Roundball Rock” show open scored 5.6 million impressions across NBC Sports’ social media platforms.
Peacock will kick off NBA Mondays beginning on Monday, Oct. 27 as the Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves take on the Denver Nuggets.
