National NBA games being shown on NBC/Peacock, Amazon Prime Video or ESPN have drawn more than 60 million viewers through the first month of the regular season, the league announced Thursday, noting that is the highest opening total in 15 years.
That doesn't include the 2011-12 season, which opened Christmas Day -- traditionally one of the biggest viewership days on the NBA calendar. Still, it's a very positive sign for the league through the season's first four weeks with this being the first of an 11-year, $76 billion deal with NBA broadcast partners.
NBA content has commanded more than 30 billion views across social media platforms operated by the league and third parties, a record for this point in a season. Sales of merchandise on NBAStore.com are up more than 20%, the league added, with those numbers driven in part by players the league calls "next generation stars" -- including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama, Tyrese Maxey, Cooper Flagg, Jalen Brunson and Luka Doncic.
NBA League Pass has seen subscriptions rise 10%, with time spent viewing games on the platform up 8%, the league said.
And it's not just screens seeing good numbers.
In-arena attendance is on pace with last season, which was the second best in league history with about 97% capacity leaguewide to this point. Ten teams entered Thursday having sold out every home game so far this season -- the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz. Some other teams, such as Atlanta and Charlotte, are up nearly 10% over last year's attendance numbers.