The 2026 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs gave the league its strongest early-series television audience in nearly three decades, with NBA.com reporting a 19.6 million-viewer average through the first four games on ABC and ESPN.
NBA.com said that made the Spurs-Knicks matchup ABC and ESPN's most-watched Finals coverage ever through four games and the most-watched NBA Finals at that stage since 1998. The figure gives the league a business-side marker from a series that later ended with New York's first championship since 1973.
Game 4 Gives NBA A Ratings Peak
Game 4, New York's comeback win over San Antonio, averaged 20.9 million viewers on ABC, according to NBA.com. The audience peaked at 23.2 million viewers at 11:15 p.m. ET, making it the largest Game 4 Finals audience since 1998.
The same NBA release said Game 4 had generated more than 3 billion social media views. That adds a digital measure to the broadcast number and explains why the league treated the matchup as more than a strong television draw.
Spurs-Knicks Number Stays In Its Lane
The audience report was published before Game 5, so the number should be read as a through-four-games benchmark. NBA.com's later Finals coverage listed Game 5 as a 94-90 Knicks win at Frost Bank Center, with New York taking the series 4-1.
That context matters because it keeps the ratings story separate from the title-clinching result. The Knicks' championship and Jalen Brunson's Finals MVP gave the series its basketball finish; the 19.6 million average gives it a broadcast benchmark from the run-up to the closeout.