While the NBA’s “USA vs. The World” All-Star Game format drew rave reviews, it’s likely the lead-in and lead-out programming on NBC that helped lift the game to a 15-year viewership high.
According to multiple reports, Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game averaged 8.8 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo, an 87% increase over last year’s near-record low of 4.7 million viewers on TNT. It’s the most-watched NBA All-Star Game since 2011, when the contest averaged 9.1 million viewers on TNT.
It was a return to form for the game that has struggled to reach a critical mass of viewers in recent years. Throughout the 2010s, viewership was relatively stable, fluctuating between about 7 million and 9 million viewers. In recent years, however, the audience has been about half that, ranging from about 4.5 million to 5.5 million viewers.
The 2026 NBA All-Star Game drew 8.8 million viewers, the largest since 2011, NBC announced.
Viewership peaked at 9.8 million viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. ET, the closing minutes of the game’s “third quarter,” when USA Stripes defeated Team World, 48–45. pic.twitter.com/Pc2ZIMGoi0
— Colin Salao (@colincsalao) February 16, 2026
The major change this year, aside from the format, was the game’s airtime and channel. Rather than a primetime telecast on TNT, this year’s All-Star Game aired at 5 p.m. ET on NBC. The game immediately followed NBC’s telecast of Olympic figure skating, and led into NBC’s Primetime in Milan coverage. NBC reportedly averaged 26.6 million viewers for its Winter Olympics coverage on Sunday, though that is a combined figure between different networks and windows.
It’s very possible that NBC’s audience before and after the NBA All-Star Game matched or even exceeded the audience that tuned in to the NBA. Hour-by-hour viewership is not immediately available. Regardless of the exact figure, it provided a much better lead-in and lead-out than TNT did for its All-Star Game telecasts.
Also of note, late-afternoon and early-evening Sunday windows tend to be the most-watched for live sporting events on broadcast television. Audiences for late-afternoon NFL games regularly surpass that of NBC’s primetime Sunday Night Football window. So while many complained about the earlier start time for this year’s All-Star Game so NBC could accommodate its Olympic obligations, the 5 p.m. ET window may have helped boost viewership even further.
No matter how the game achieved the number it did, NBA commissioner Adam Silver should be popping bottles of champagne to celebrate. The game’s moribund viewership has been a sore spot for the league for years. What was once one of the premier nights of NBA coverage had become a laughingstock, with many calling for the game to be nixed altogether. Sunday proved there’s still some fuel left in the tank, so long as the league can leverage the new format and players continue to compete in a genuine way.