OUR FAVORITE BREAKDOWN 💡

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CHARTS 🌁

Down and to the right 📉

It’s no longer a secret—traditional NBA viewership is struggling. Simply put, fewer people are tuning in to watch games on TV.

Average viewers per regular season game 📅
2013-14: 1.95M
2023-24: 1.6M
10-year change: -18%

Average viewers during the NBA Finals 🏆
2013-14: 15.54M
2023-24: 11.31M
10-year change: -27%

Even if we treat that Finals number with caution due to its variability, there’s an undeniable decline from the regular season peak we saw about 15 years ago.

Chart Type - Waffle 🧇

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I didn’t mean to make this chart so graphic by slashing through people ❌ with a red line, but we needed to get the point across.

Simply put, if 100 people were watching the NBA in 2014, 18 of them have left the party. Since this is just a simple proportion, we could’ve gone with a pie chart 🥧 but waffle charts with symbols like this add more personality—especially when the data represents real people.

Also avoiding pie charts at all costs. 🙅

The reason for the season 🤕

This is the part where we try and uncover why people are watching less basketball. If you follow any sort of sports media you have probably heard the takes of “3 point shots and fake injuries are ruining the game”. Is that true? 🤔

Let’s start with 3-pointers.

If we’re asking if teams are shifting their focus to shooting threes, the answer is yes. 10 years ago, teams shot 22.4 three-pointers per game on average. So far this year that number is up to 37.4, a 67% increase.

3-pointers now account for 42.2% of all shots in a typical NBA game, which some argue has led to a decline in the quality of play on the court. 👎

Now, let’s address the issue of star player absences.

Whether due to scheduled rest or long-term injuries, the number of games missed by star players 🤕 has climbed significantly over the past two decades. According to an NBA study, star players in this decade miss an average of 23.9 games per season—30% of all games—compared to just 10.9 games per season in the 1990s.

This year, the league introduced a “load management” policy that fines teams for resting players excessively without an injury. However, the impact of this policy remains to be seen as this season is already on pace to break missed game records. 🩼

Chart Type - Bespoke Bars ✍️

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When I design visualizations, I always try to weave them into the artwork’s story. 🎨 Sure, a basic stacked bar chart can show NBA shot types, but layering it over the court brings the data to life. 

The three-point line, being so binary—you’re either behind it or not—makes it the perfect dividing line for stacking bars around it.

Likewise, using shaded bench seats to represent injury time missed just felt right. Those empty spots are exactly what you see when players are sidelined, so it’s a natural way to connect the data with the visual feel of a game. 🔗

I love this chart combo because it augments the look and feel of an actual game ⛹️ with data visualizations. 📊

Like father, like son 👨‍👦

This is where we turn a corner in the analysis. Sure, fewer people are watching the NBA on traditional television—but is that the whole story?

Of course not. Over the last decade, the league has intentionally built a robust “media ecosystem” centered on social media. 📱 

Take the NBA’s Instagram account, for instance—it boasts 89.1 million followers, nearly triple that of the NFL, and far surpasses other major leagues in the country. On average, NBA teams have 6.1 million followers each, again almost triple that of the NFL.

Every day, league and team accounts flood their social channels with real-time highlights, delivering the game’s most exciting moments directly to fans without requiring them to watch an entire game.

Over the past 30 days alone, the NBA posted 1,350 times—an average of 45 posts per day. 😵‍💫 The Warriors, the league’s most-followed team, post more than a dozen times on gamedays to ensure fans never miss a Steph Curry highlight.

While social media impressions don’t directly translate to full-game viewership, it’s clear the league has strategically used its massive online audience to diversify its media exposure and reduce reliance on traditional television. 📺

Chart Type - Double Dot Plot 🔴···

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Big dot, little dot.

This data genuinely surprised me. I’m so used to assuming the NFL dominates every facet of media, but when it comes to social presence, the NBA blows them out of the water.

That said, it’s a double-edged sword. ⚔️ League team accounts operate differently, which is why we introduced the graph with the big dots representing the league first, then followed it with a separate chart showing individual teams.

This approach not only highlights the umbrella account size disparity but also provides granular team data to back up the claim.

Who cares, anyway? 🤷

Of course, the NBA isn’t thrilled about declining viewership—but they’ve got some time to figure it out.

Thanks to the new media rights deal signed this past offseason, the league is guaranteed $6.9 billion per year for the next 11 years from TV networks to broadcast games. Even if viewership drops to zero, they’ll still cash the check.

This gives the NBA a decade to navigate the ever-shifting landscape of big media while doubling down on younger audiences through emerging social platforms.

Yes, there are existential challenges ahead—like introducing new stars and managing the eventual phase-out of icons like LeBron and Steph. But in our view, declining viewership isn’t as big a concern as it might seem.

Chart Type - Stacked bar chart 📚

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A boring but necessary chart. 😴

This shows that, even if nothing else changes, the NBA’s revenue will grow by 33% next year solely because of the new media rights deal. Highlighting that slice of the pie—and its growth relative to the league’s overall business—was essential.

It’s not the cleanest or easiest chart to read, which definitely loses us some style points, but hopefully the message still comes through about the health of the basketball business. 💼

OTHER STUFF WE MADE 🎥

Wemby the Alien 👽🏀

Why we created SportsBall ⚽️🏀🏈🏒