Two games, two major television audiences. The Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals is averaging 16.68 million viewers on ABC, the best start to a Finals series since 2018.
The two-game average is up 89% from last year. Game 2 did much of the work, drawing 16.43 million viewers for the Knicks' 105-104 win on Friday and reaching a peak of 19.42 million during the 11:15 p.m. ET quarter-hour.
No Game 2 has drawn a larger Finals audience since Cavaliers-Warriors averaged 18.75 million in 2018. Friday's figure topped the previous high since then, Warriors-Raptors in 2019, by 18% and ranked sixth among Game 2 audiences over the past 25 years.
The opener was even bigger. Game 1 averaged 16.93 million viewers, making it the NBA's largest audience since 2019. Game 2 now ranks third over that span, behind the opener and the 16.61 million audience for last year's Game 7.
That is a sharp change from the league's recent Finals ratings. Going into Game 6 last year, 34 consecutive Finals broadcasts had failed to reach 14 million viewers. Three straight have now cleared 16 million.
Game 2 did lose 3% of the audience from Wednesday's opener, but Friday nights have traditionally been difficult for the Finals. There have been 33 Friday Finals games since 1992, and only seven increased viewership from the previous game.
The year-over-year comparison was far less subtle. Friday's Knicks-Spurs game was up 88% from Pacers-Thunder Game 2 last year, which averaged 8.90 million on a Sunday. It also beat last year's Friday Game 4 audience of 9.41 million by 75%. The last Friday Finals game to perform better was Cavaliers-Warriors Game 4 in 2017 at 19.11 million.
Knicks-Spurs is also running ahead of baseball's recent championship audiences. Its 16.68 million average through two games exceeds every World Series since 2016. Dodgers-Blue Jays averaged 12.5 million through two games last year, and Dodgers-Yankees stood at 14.5 million two years ago.
There is a measurement caveat. Nielsen did not include out-of-home viewing until 2020, expanded that measurement to all markets only last year and now blends its traditional panel with Big Data from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Older comparisons therefore are not exact.
Game 1 also showed the local pull of the matchup. San Antonio posted a 25.8 rating, while New York delivered a 14.7, its highest rating yet for a Knicks game on ABC.
San Antonio's local figure was down from the 32.7 rating for the Spurs' previous Finals opener against Miami in 2014. New York has seen bigger numbers for games without the Knicks, including a 20.3 rating for Cavaliers-Warriors Game 7 in 2016.
On the 25-year list for Game 2 audiences, Friday's broadcast ranks sixth. Heat-Thunder in 2012 is one of the few ahead of it, at 16.67 million. Game 7 of this year's Western Conference Finals also came close to the current Finals run, drawing 15.90 million viewers on NBC.
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