NEW YORK—New viewing data from Nielsen shows that Oklahoma City Thunder was the most watched team, averaging 1.8 Million viewers per game in the regular season, followed by the Los Angeles. Lakers and the New York Knicks. and that LeBron James was the most watched player.
In terms of the most watched players James was in the top spot, followed by Victor Wembanyama.
Nielsen’s Spring 2026 Tops of Sports report also showed double-digit growth in viewership across basketball (+27%), hockey (+25%), auto racing (+44%), and golf (+12%*), fueled by new streaming and broadcast options, the massive popularity of global stars, and changing ways that fans follow their favorite teams.
More specifically, the NBA has seen a 27% increase in average audience for the regular season and a 10% 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 is also experiencing a major boost, with average NHL regular season viewership up 25% to 540,000 viewers per game and the first round of the postseason seeing a 77% 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 two billion streaming minutes in the first quarter of 2026.
The number of TikTok followers on the NHL’s official account increased by 83% 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% 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.
Last year’s 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% higher than the same period in 2025. Viewer interest is also rising, with 19% of respondents reporting being somewhat or very interested in IndyCar as of March 2026, up from 15% in March of 2023.
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% so far this year.
