NBA All-Star Game Ratings Tank, Second-Lowest On Record
The NBA All-Star Game on Sunday averaged just 4.7 million viewers, a 13 percent decline from last season.
This year's event was the second-least-watched All-Star Game on record dating back to 1990. Only the 2023 All-Star Game drew fewer viewers, with an average of 4.6 million.
The NBA has spent much of the past five seasons tinkering with the All-Star format, but the results remained the same: a bunch of entitled millionaires end up making a mockery of the game by showing minimal effort and interest.
The cobalt blue court was nice, but nonetheless, not a solution.
No, ESPN, turning the event into a celebration of black history is not the answer. Yes, the network actually suggested that this week.
SAN FRANCISCO - Players are in action between the game of Chuck's Global Stars (Red Team) and Kenny's Young Stars (Blue Team) during 2025 NBA All-Star night at Chase Center on February 16, 2025. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun /Anadolu via Getty Images)
To show how far the All-Star Game has fallen in terms of interest, the event drew 17.45 million viewers 20 years ago--when players took the game seriously and respected their fans.
Still, the NBA's ills run much deeper than just the fall of its exhibition All-Star Game. The biggest stars in sports hardly take the regular season seriously, choosing to sit out games due to "load management" and "knee soreness." Moreover, the NBA Finals have set record lows in four out of the last five seasons.
Sure, the NBA recently signed an 11-year, $76 billion rights agreement with Amazon, Disney, and Comcast. But the product is clearly in decline and, at some point, the league will face the consequences of that.
The recommendation here is that the league lean into its foreign superstars more and the previous era of American stars less.
The American-born stars have become increasingly political, toxic, and unlikable. They make more headlines for demanding trades and endorsing Kamala Harris than for their play on the court.
The opposite is true of international stars like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Victor Wembanyama. These players take no games off, never bail on their franchises, and focus far more on winning basketball games than growing their brands on social media.
Notably, no two players took All-Star Weekend more seriously than Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama.
"Just 4.7 million people watched the NBA All Star Game on Sunday. That’s down over 80% from viewership in the past and down 13% over last year. LeBron and Adam Silver have destroyed the NBA’s brand," Clay Travis posted on X Wednesday.
"The NBA destroyed its brand by listening to woke sportswriters online. I’ve got a better idea: they should try to appeal to every single basketball fan in America by putting out a great product and respecting their fans."
The LeBron-BLM era of the NBA didn't put out a great product or respect its fans. As a result, viewers lost interest at a record rate.