Who Gets More Views: NBA or NFL?
Contents
The NBA has seen a steady decline in viewership over the past few years, while the NFL has remained relatively steady. So, who gets more views?
Introduction
It’s no secret that the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) are two of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world. But which one is more popular? That’s a question that has long been debated by fans of both sports.
There are a few ways to measure popularity, but one of the most common is to look at television ratings. According to Nielsen, an organization that tracks television ratings, the NFL averaged 17.6 million viewers per game during the 2018-2019 season while the NBA averaged 1.9 million viewers per game during the 2017-2018 season.
Based on these numbers, it would appear that the NFL is much more popular than the NBA. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Nielsen only tracks viewership in the United States. The NBA is extremely popular internationally, especially in China, where games are frequently televised live in the middle of the night.
Another way to measure popularity is to look at social media followings. As of September 2019, the NBA had nearly twice as many followers on Twitter as the NFL (21.8 million vs 11.5 million). On Facebook, the NBA also had nearly twice as many followers as the NFL (23 million vs 12 million).
So, based on social media followings, it would appear that the NBA is more popular than the NFL. However, it’s important to keep in mind that social media followings can be skewed by a number of factors, including location and age demographic. For example, younger people are more likely to use social media than older people and they’re also more likely to follow sports leagues like the NBA over leagues like the NFL.
In conclusion, it’s difficult to say definitively which league is more popular – it depends on how you measure it. However, based on television ratings and social media followings, it appears that the NBA may have a slight edge over the NFL when it comes to popularity.
NBA vs NFL: Which League Gets More Views?
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL) are two of the most popular sports leagues in the United States. Both leagues have a huge following, but which one gets more views?
NBA Regular Season Games
In the 2019-2020 season, the NBA had an average of 1.51 million viewers per regular season game. The NFL had an average of 14.99 million viewers per regular season game during the same time period. The NBA Finals had an average of 17.7 million viewers, while the NFL Super Bowl had an average of 102 million viewers.
NFL Regular Season Games
Viewership for NFL regular season games has been declining in recent years, but the league is still far and away the most popular sport on television. In fact, the NFL’s ratings were down 9% in 2017 compared to the previous year, but that still meant that an average of 14.9 million people were watching each game.
The NBA, on the other hand, saw a slight uptick in ratings last season. An average of 1.2 million people watched NBA games during the 2016-17 season, which was up 5% from the previous year.
So, while the NFL remains the most-watched sport on TV, the NBA is closing the gap in terms of viewership.
NBA Playoffs Games
On average, the NBA Finals receives about 20% more viewers than the NFL’s Super Bowl. The ratings for both events have been steadily declining over the past few years, but the NBA Finals has consistently had higher viewership than the Super Bowl since 2010. There are a few reasons for this: first, the NBA is a more global sport than the NFL, so it has a wider appeal. Second, basketball is generally a more fast-paced and exciting game to watch than football. Finally, the NBA Finals is a best-of-seven series, so there are more potential games to watch than the Super Bowl (which is only one game).
The bottom line is that while both the NBA and NFL are extremely popular sports leagues, the NBA Finals typically receives more viewers than the Super Bowl.
NFL Playoffs Games
While the National Football League (NFL) season is still underway, fans are already eager to see which teams will make it to the playoffs. And, of course, there’s always the big question: who will get more views, the NBA or NFL?
There’s no doubt that both leagues are extremely popular, but it’s difficult to compare them when it comes to views. After all, the NFL season is shorter than the NBA’s, and there are fewer playoff games. However, we can take a look at some data to see if we can get an idea of which league gets more views.
Let’s start with the obvious: the NFL has more nationwide viewers than the NBA. In fact, According to Nielsen ratings, the NFL averaged 17.6 million viewers per game in 2017, while the NBA averaged 5.2 million viewers per game. That’s a pretty significant difference!
When it comes to specific playoff games, though, it’s a different story. For example, last year’s NBA Finals averaged 20 million viewers per game while the NFL playoffs averaged 19.2 million viewers per game. So while the NFL may have more overall viewers, when it comes to specific games (like playoffs or finals), the NBA tends to get more views.
Of course, these numbers can fluctuate from year to year and there are many other factors that affect viewing figures (such as day of week and time of year). But overall, it seems safe to say that the NFL gets more views than the NBA on an annual basis.
Conclusion
After looking at the data, it is clear that the NBA gets more views than the NFL. The NBA has more participants, and their games are more evenly matched, which makes for a more entertaining product. The NFL has more parity, but that doesn’t seem to be translating into more viewers.