In the out-of-home viewing era, Easter has become a favorite holiday of television executives. That proved to be the case once again on Sunday, with the NBA securing its most-watched opening weekend of the playoffs in 25 years, according to commissioner Adam Silver appearing on stage at the SBJ World Congress of Sports on Tuesday.
Viewership for the eight games across ABC, ESPN, TNT, and truTV averaged 4.39 million viewers.
Commissioner Adam Silver breaks news on stage that NBA had its best opening weekend of the playoffs in 25 years #sbjwcos
Kind of surprising given the blowouts. But NBA still riding second half momentum pic.twitter.com/jnMWO6kkM2
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) April 22, 2025
That superlative would seem to hold true based on a press release ESPN issued Tuesday morning. The network’s six-game slate (three games on ESPN, three games on ABC), averaged 4.49 million viewers, a 15% increase versus last year’s opening weekend games.
Sunday afternoon’s game between the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics led the way with 6.69 million viewers on ABC, up 44% versus last year’s Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Clippers game in the same window. It was the second most-watched opening weekend playoff game ever on ESPN, trailing only a Boston Celtics-Brooklyn Nets game on Easter in 2022 (6.9 million viewers).
Saturday’s primetime affair between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers on ABC averaged 5.84 million viewers, the second most-watched game of the weekend and up 3% versus last year’s window (Lakers-Nuggets, 5.65 million viewers).
ABC’s early Sunday afternoon game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder, a 51-point blowout from OKC, averaged 4.45 million viewers, up a surprising 18% year-over-year given the noncompetitive nature of the game.
ESPN’s three games (all on Saturday) averaged 3.38 million viewers, with Game 1 of the Detroit Pistons-New York Knicks series delivering the most-watched game of the weekend for the cable network, 4.12 million viewers for the Knicks’ comeback win.
Viewership figures for TNT’s Sunday night contests were similarly strong. The network delivered its most-watched NBA playoffs opening day since 2017, averaging 4.1 million viewers across TNT, truTV, and Max for its doubleheader featuring the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET (4 million viewers, up 17%) and the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets at 9:30 p.m. ET (4.2 million viewers, up 31%).
Viewership of TNT Sports’ coverage for the 2025 #NBAPlayoffs is off to a strong 💪start:
🏀Most-watched opening day since 2017
🏀4.1 million avg. viewers, up 23% vs. 2024
🏀”Inside the NBA” audience up 40% vs. 2024, most-watched opening day episode in 7 years 📈More ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/vBFoug5Ip2
— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) April 22, 2025
The strong opening weekend continues a positive trend for the league since this year’s trade deadline, when viewership began to surge. No doubt, additional out-of-home viewing from the Easter holiday helped things along, but the quarter-century superlative should continue to quell any doubts about interest in the NBA as a viewership sport.
