NBA All-Star Game viewership down 13% amid latest format change, criticism

Fans really weren’t happy with the All-Star Game this year. The numbers now back that up.

Viewership of Sunday night’s game across TNT, TBS and TruTV were down 13% year-over-year, according to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel. Just more than 4.7 million people tuned in for the game, compared to the nearly 5.4 million who watched in 2024.

That marks the second-lowest All-Star Game viewership in the last 25 years. The previous three years are all among the lowest, and the only games with fewer than 6 million people tuning in. The game in 2023 drew about 4.6 million viewers.

The highest-rated All-Star Game during that period came in 2002, when more than 13 million people tuned in. That game featured a 31-point performance from Kobe Bryant, who was booed by Philadelphia fans, and a missed breakaway dunk from Michael Jordan.

The NBA All-Star Game tried another new format this year at the Chase Center in San Francisco. There were four teams that competed in a mini tournament, which was done in an effort to encourage competition rather than just the blowout, meaningless game we’ve seen in recent years.

But that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James announced just before that game that he wasn’t going to play due to ankle and foot discomfort, though he still showed up and was in street clothes. Even Draymond Green blasted the new format repeatedly during TNT’s broadcast. It was, by most accounts, another failure.

While some players have suggested another new format — Kenny Smith said on the broadcast that he thinks they’re going to change it back, while some players have been pushing for an international-domestic battle instead — it’s clear the league still has plenty of issues to figure out with its All-Star Game format. If that wasn’t clear before, the viewership numbers prove that.