Nielsen’s _Spring 2026 Tops of Sports_ report shows double-digit growth in viewership across basketball (+27 per cent), hockey (+25 per cent), auto racing (+44 per cent), and golf (+12 per cent), fueled by new streaming and broadcast options, the popularity of global stars, and changing ways that fans follow their favourite teams.
**Key insights include:**
**NBA:**
As part of the report, Nielsen has compiled a Top 10 list of most-watched NBA teams (2025-26 regular season) and Top 10 most-viewed players on NBA social and digital channels (2025-26 regular season). Star power remains critical, with 63 per cent of fans saying they started following the league because of a specific player (Nielsen Fan Insights, April – December 2025). This influence is visible in a clear correlation between the most-viewed players on social media and the most-watched teams during the regular season.
There is a direct correlation between the most viewed players on NBA social media alongside the most-watched teams during the regular season. All but three teams have a player in the NBA’s top 10.
In addition, the NBA has seen a 27 per cent increase in average audience for the regular season and a 10 per cent bump for the early rounds of the playoffs. The league benefits from new distribution deals that help reach a younger-skewing audience on streaming while still benefiting from larger audiences on broadcast and cable.
**Ice Hockey**
Ice hockey is experiencing a major moment, with average NHL regular season viewership up 25 per cent to 540,000 viewers per game and the first round of the postseason seeing a 77 per cent lift to 1.2 million. This growth was significantly bolstered by a surge in interest in hockey from significant cultural moments such as the American Men’s and Women’s Olympic gold medal victories to Amazon’s new hit series _Off-Campus_ to HBO Max’s _Heated Rivalry,_ which notched nearly 2 billion streaming minutes in the first quarter of 2026.
The number of TikTok followers on the NHL’s official account increased by 83 per cent this season. Further demonstrating America’s growing interest, the national TV debut of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) drew approximately 133,000 viewers on ION, with 45 per cent of the audience Women 18+. In addition, demonstrating the buying power of hockey fans, NHL viewers rank #3 in terms of highest median income among all sports viewers.
**IndyCar**
The 2025 Indianapolis 500 averaged over seven million viewers, the most in 17 years. The 2026 season is already off to a strong start, with the first five races averaging 1.2 million viewers, which is 44 per cent higher than the same period in 2025. Viewer interest is also rising, with 19 per cent of respondents reporting being somewhat or very interested in IndyCar as of March 2026, up from 15 per cent in March of 2023.
**PGA Tour**
So far in 2026, the Tour is averaging 1.5 million viewers in 2026. Efforts to evolve the franchise’s social media presence may be paying off, as Nielsen Scarborough data shows a steady increase in interest since 2023. An influx of young Asian talent like Collin Morikawa, Akshay Bhatia, and Si Woo Kim looks to be helping to expand the tour’s audience, with Asian viewership to PGA Tour events up 12 per cent so far this year.