The NBA sees an 84% increase in ratings this Christmas, its best numbers in five years, despite competition from the NFL

The NBA got the Christmas present it was longing for on Wednesday.

In a Boxing Day announcement, the league said it had posted its most-watched Christmas list in five years, averaging 5.25 million viewers across its five games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+. This reportedly represents an 84% increase in viewership compared to Christmas last year.

As expected, the biggest game of the day was between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors or LeBron James and Stephen Curry. This game averaged 7.76 million viewers with a peak of 8.32 million, the most-watched game in the same five-year period and a 499% increase over last year’s window (which was between the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat).

The game was an entertaining one that saw the Lakers blow a double-digit lead in the final minutes, cap it off with a game-winning 3-pointer from Curry with eight seconds left, and then win on a layup from Austin Reaves.

The NBA will be happy to accept all of these numbers, considering that it is currently struggling to defend at least some of its Christmas influence against the strongest league in the world.

How did the NBA fare against the NFL on Christmas?

The NFL has been trying for several years to replicate its Thanksgiving success by adding a series of games on Christmas, regardless of which inauspicious day of the week the holiday falls on.

This year, that day was Wednesday, so the league had to have four of its teams play on the Saturday of the previous week to give them at least four days’ rest. In total there were still three games in eleven days and some players were not happy, even though they and the fans at least saw a Beyoncé concert.

This year was also unusual because it was the first time the NFL handed the slate over to Netflix, having already found success (or at least money) by handing “Thursday Night Football” to a streamer on Amazon.

The NFL has reported success so far in 2024 Christmas viewership, but in the usual Netflix way without the hard numbers you see in Nielsen ratings. Instead of a concurrent viewership like the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match, the league announced the following on Wednesday:

• More than 200 countries watched at least part of the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

• that the Chiefs-Steelers game was already Netflix’s second most popular “live” title to date.

• Almost a third of global Netflix viewers watched “Chiefs-Steelers.”

• Netflix has been on top for the highest number of concurrent viewers on Christmas for the past four years.

To illustrate, last year’s NFL Christmas, held on a Monday, drew an average of 29 million viewers across three games, topping the NBA’s 2.85 million this year.

When LeBron James proclaimed after the Lakers’ win on Wednesday, “I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day,” he expressed what many in the NBA hope to achieve or preserve. You can at least say that this year was a step in the right direction after some dismal results in recent years.