NBA Christmas ratings suffer steep decline going against NFL

The NBA is synonymous with Christmas Day. At the same time, that doesn’t mean that most Americans would prefer to watch it compared to the NFL.

If there was any doubt about that, the NFL made the hierarchy of team sports in the United States clear on Christmas Day 2023. A Monday, the NFL scheduled three games for Christmas, including two rivalry games and a potential Super Bowl preview. Up against that, the NBA struggled to get most people’s attention.

In fact, ratings for the NBA suffered a steep decline thanks to the NFL.

The Celtics-Lakers, a classic NBA rivalry between two good teams, reportedly had 5.0 million viewers across ABC and ESPN. That was down 18% from Boston’s game last Christmas against the Bucks. That game drew 6.08 million viewers.

Despite the decline from last year, Celtics-Lakers was still the most-viewed NBA game this season.

Games that were on ESPN, not ABC, suffered even more. The first game, Bucks-Knicks, earned 2.49 million viewers. That was down 39% from the 76ers and Knicks in that same window last Christmas. It only got worse, with the Mavericks-Suns game down 42% in the late-night window. However, the worst game for viewership ended up being the 76ers-Heat game. Only 1.3 million viewers tuned in. That was down from 4.75 million or 73% from last season.

Notably, this was the second season in a row that the NFL scheduled games opposite the NBA. So, those are numbers compared to how the NBA did against the NFL a year ago. One of the biggest differences was the quality of the NFL games, though, particularly the primetime matchup between the Ravens and 49ers. On top of that, the NFL’s games were on ABC. That meant that the NBA would only be on ESPN and ESPN2, likely costing the league potential viewers.

All three NFL games had more than 27 million viewers.

Roger Goodell sees NFL becoming ‘very global’ over next decade

The NFL is expanding rapidly and that includes internationally, with commissioner Roger Goodell expecting the league to become very global in the next decade.

“I am convinced that this game is going to be a global sport. We could’ve sold over our two games in Germany 4.5 million tickets. They sold out in minutes. And it’s literally the same with the U.K. I think you’re going to see a very global NFL, not necessarily with franchises, but maybe like have one playing games on a global basis. And I see that happening in the next five to 10 years,” Goodell said.

“We’re really excited about that. I don’t see that as much as expanding the number of franchises as I do expanding the opportunity for people to really just enjoy the game. We actually have three or four markets that are here this weekend and next weekend that are interested in hosting a game.”