NFL vs NBA TV Ratings: Who had the highest viewership on Christmas Day 2023?

This past week was a great example of how the NFL still dominates sports television. Despite Christmas Day falling on a Monday, the NFL offered viewers a tripleheader that went up against the NBA, with three exciting matchups broadcasted nationally. CBS aired the Chiefs-Raiders, followed by Giants-Eagles on Fox, and finally the thrilling Ravens-49ers game on ABC. It was rare to see ABC broadcasting a standalone NFL game like the old days of Monday Night Football.

The NFL ratings

Since 2016, the NFL has started putting emphasis on scheduling games on Christmas Day, a day usually reserved for NBA games. Before 2016, they had played only 15 Christmas Day regular season games, but since then, they have played 13 games. The first NFL Christmas Day regular season game was played in 1989. In contrast, the NBA has played games on Christmas Day every year since 1947, the year the League was born.

The first of three NFL games played on Christmas Day in 2023 featured the Las Vegas Raiders against the Kansas City Chiefs. According to CBS Sports, an average of 29.171 million viewers watched the AFC West contest on CBS and Nickelodeon. The game was the most-watched Christmas Day programming in CBS history and the highest-rated NFL game since 1989.

The NBA ratings

The NBA has been broadcasting games on Christmas Day for 76 years. The first game was played in 1947, with the New York Knicks defeating the Providence Steamrollers. This tradition has continued and become a holiday staple.

For a long time, the NBA was the only sport to air games on Christmas Day, which gave them an advantage in TV ratings. However, during Thanksgiving, the NFL averaged over 34 million viewers, which is almost eight times the average audience of an NBA game on Christmas Day.

Last year, the NFL debuted with multiple games on Christmas Day and had much higher TV ratings than the NBA. In 2022, the NFL had an average of 22.9 million viewers across three games, while the NBA only reached 4.27 million average viewers. Although ratings increased by 4.6% year-over-year, it was the second-lowest rating recorded by the NBA in the past five seasons.

It’s possible that the discrepancy between the two leagues’ ratings could increase even more in 2023. The NFL has consistently had much higher ratings than the NBA for the past three years, with an average of five times the NBA’s viewership. This trend will likely continue this year, with the official Christmas Day TV ratings expected to show the NFL as the clear winner.