NEW YORK, April 15, 2011 – NBA fans responded to one of the most compelling regular seasons in history as the league established record-breaking numbers for television viewership, web traffic, and social media followers.  Additionally, the NBA finished the regular season with arenas filled to 90 percent capacity for the seventh consecutive season.

The NBA heads into the postseason, which will tip off on ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV beginning Saturday, April 16, and Sunday, April 17, with outstanding off-the-court numbers.

Viewers

• ABC, ESPN, and TNT had their most viewed seasons ever with each achieving double-digit increases (ABC: +38%; ESPN: +28%, TNT: 42%).

• NBA games reached more than 103 million unique viewers during the regular season, 13% more than last season.

• NBA TV was available in more than 55 million U.S. homes this season as the network’s signature program, Fan Night, was viewed by more than 8.6 million viewers this season.

Web Traffic

• NBA.com set all-time records for videos viewed and page views:
  • More than 1.94 billion videos were viewed by fans this season, an increase of more than 140 percent from last year’s record season.

• Nearly 5.9 billion page views were viewed, an increase of more than 35 percent when compared to last season’s record.

Social Media

• The NBA has built one of the largest communities in the world in social media with official NBA, team, and player pages accumulating more than 100 million followers and fans combined across Twitter and Facebook – up from 63 million at start of season.

Attendance

• For the seventh consecutive season, the NBA finished the regular season with arena capacity at 90 percent or greater (90.3) and surpassed the 21 million attendance mark (21,307,222).

• The NBA had its fifth highest season for average regular season attendance, up 1% over last year (17,306 vs. 17,139).

Merchandise

• Merchandise sales were up more than 20% globally; sales on NBAStore.com were up more than 60%.