The Knicks and Spurs have been must-listen as much as must-watch this NBA Finals, according to new data from Spotify.
NBA Finals-related podcast listening on Spotify surged more than 350% over the past week, while streams of Finals-related episodes were up more than 450% over the same period. The morning after Game 3 — Tuesday, June 9 — was the single biggest day for sports podcast listening on the platform this year, up roughly 500% from typical levels.
There’s been a big spike in sports pod listenership during the NBA Finals, a rep for Spotify tells @FOS. In addition to the data below, Empire State of Mind Jay-Z/Alicia Keys saw a 1,245% spike of listens right after Game 4. pic.twitter.com/9Qjgsoz1nt
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) June 11, 2026
The surge lines up with what’s happening on TV. Game 3, the Spurs’ 115-111 win at Madison Square Garden, averaged 23.8 million viewers across ABC and ESPN, the largest audience for a Finals Game 3 since 1998 and the first Finals game at MSG since 1999. The series has averaged 19.1 million viewers through three games, more than double last year’s Thunder-Pacers numbers.
That demand is spilling into the podcast feeds people use to process each game the next morning. Eight of Spotify’s top 10 sports podcast episodes this past week came from Pardon My Take and The Bill Simmons Podcast — the same two shows that topped Spotify’s list of the platform’s biggest sports podcasts by follower count among non-athlete-hosted shows — while The Zach Lowe Show also cracked the top 10 with an episode on the Knicks’ Game 2 win.
The Knicks’ return to the Finals for the first time since 1999 is showing up in what New York is listening to and watching. Following Tuesday’s game, the top-streamed song in New York City was “Empire State of Mind” by JAY-Z and Alicia Keys, which saw a 1,245% spike in local Spotify streams.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.