The 2025 NBA All-Star Game tested out a brand new format this season, bringing a tournament style competition to the star-studded exhibition. The three-game tournament on Sunday night averaged 4.7 million viewers, which was up 3 percent from 2023’s 4.6 million viewers, but also down 13 percent from last year’s 5.4 million viewers.
While the new All-Star format was controversial and the ratings weren’t necessarily where many were hoping they’d be, fans still tuned into the weekend’s biggest game.
2025 NBA All-Star Game puts up 4.7 billion social media views
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game generated a record 4.7 billion views across all NBA social media accounts and platforms, according to Videocites. That does not account for the immense amount of fan-driven in-arena footage or other content shared from non-NBA accounts throughout the night.
All in all, 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend events won the night with people under 50 on all three nights across cable. Those include Friday night’s Celebrity All-Star Game and Rising Stars Game, Saturday night’s Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest, and Dunk Contest, as well as Sunday’s 74th annual All-Star Game.
The NBA All-Star game also won the night across all television in men under the age of 50 and in the age 18-34 demographic.
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game averaged 4.72M viewers, up 3% vs. 2023, with viewership increasing as the night went on, but also down 13 percent from the 2024 All-Star Game. Unfortunately, it also finished as the second least watched NBA All-Star Game, according to Front Office Sports.
There is some context that needs to be applied behind those numbers, however.
First, the most popular superstar athlete in sports — LeBron James — did not suit up for the game in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he’s played 37 road games in his career. James and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry have played 55 games against one another throughout their careers, and a chance to watch them as teammates would’ve only added to the hype. James has been battling ankle and foot injuries for a couple years now, and announced his decision not to play a little over an hour before tipoff.
Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, one of the rising stars and best personalities in the league, was also a late scratch due to groin soreness.
On top of that, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic, and Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis were among globally known superstars who were not in the game this time around due to injury.
Additionally, last year’s highly-watched Three-Point Contest between New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry was expected to be brought back for 2025 All-Star Weekend, but fell through in the final days after Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark declined to participate in the competition.
The weekend also faced increased TV competition with Saturday Night Live’s 50th Anniversary Special, the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off featuring USA vs. Canada, and the Daytona 500.
Viewership in Canada of the 2025 NBA All-Star Game was up 59 percent versus last year, making it the most-watched All-Star Game in five years.
2025 NBA All-Star Weekend also drove a 56 percent increase in NBA League Pass signups compared to 2024 All-Star Weekend. Global watch time for the 2025 NBA All-Star game was also up 36 percent as viewers spent more time watching the full stream of Sunday’s exhibition.
The NBA introduced a tournament style set up for this year’s All-Star Game in which the selected 24 stars would be split up into three teams of eight players with a fourth team composed of the winners of the Rising Stars Game on Friday night.
The four teams were placed in pairs on separate sides of the backet and would go head-to-head in a game up to 40 points to advance to the Final round, where they’d face off against the winner of the other game. Charles Barkley defeated Kenny Smith’s team in Game 1 and Shaquille O’Neal defeated Candace Parker’s team in Game 2, setting Barkley and Shaq’s teams to face off in the final round.
Shaq’s team, led by MVP winner Stephen Curry, ultimately defeated Barkley’s team, 41-25.
The problem most fans, players, and media had with the game was the extremely limited basketball being played as well as the extended breaks in the action. Overall, the tournament was fun and brought out the competitive nature in players right away, but 40 points was a very low target score for the league’s superstars.
After the event, a breakdown of the TV time showed that there were about 33 minutes and 41 seconds of game time in the All-Star Game and 2 hours and 26 minutes of commercials or breaks.
This year’s NBA All-Star Game felt more like a social event than actual basketball being played
pic.twitter.com/E6Uy0zHeTu
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 17, 2025
Despite the disappointing game and TV ratings being down 13 percent from last season, fans watched, liked, and shared social media content that came from All-Star Sunday night, delivering an NBA record 4.7 billion views across NBA social media accounts and platforms.
The post 2025 NBA All-Star Game views up from 2023, puts up 4.7 billion social media views appeared first on ClutchPoints.
