“Why are NBA ratings so low?”
This is a question that’s now been asked countless times.
It all started in 2019 when NBA ratings dropped just a little bit. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, causing critical damage to almost every major sports league on the planet.
And while all of this was going on, the NBA quietly fell into a trap of allowing every team to turn into three-point junkies. Combine everything together, and you begin to see why the NBA might be in decline.
The situation is best summed by the recent All-Star Game. After a dismal event last year, it was universally agreed that this annual tradition had gotten stale and needed a refresh.
This is exactly what it received, with a new format — a four-team, single-elimination tournament — officially introduced for the 2025 All-Star Game. But even though NBA fans were praying this new format would work, it fell flat on its face right from the beginning, leading to a social-media meltdown.
Why the 2025 NBA All-Star Game Flopped
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game struggled with a lot of problems.
First up, the new format just wasn’t a hit. Sure, on paper, it could have worked. However, it failed to grab fans the way many thought it might. This wasn’t helped by the fact that just 42 minutes of actual basketball was played between Shaq’s OGs, Chuck’s Global Stars, Candace’s Rising Stars, and Kenny’s Young Stars across the three-hour event.
To put it simply, there were too many commercials. And between all of the ads, fans had to suffer through disastrous Kevin Hart appearances, a bizarre ‘MrBeast’ $100k challenge, and analysis from the TNT crew who appeared to be wishing they were anywhere else but the All-Star Game.
Not to mention, there were zero big-name players in the dunk contest, which raised disappointment levels even higher than they already were.
It is obvious what the NBA was trying to do— they wanted to capture younger audiences. The intention was there, but the execution was way off. Many people were even calling in the “TikTokification” of the NBA, with this sentiment being hard to disagree with. In a way, it seemed as though the NBA was catering to an audience that wasn’t even there to begin with.
Following the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend, Steph Curry had this to say about the modernization of the event:
“The way people consume basketball is different. It’s not going to look like it used to. But it can still be fun for everybody. I had fun. Our team had fun. That’s kind of all that matters.”
All of this has led to the NBA being stuck between a rock and a hard place. If it refuses to adapt, the NBA All-Star Game will become completely irrelevant and ratings will continue to drop across the board. And if it does continue to modernize, then it risks alienating hardcore NBA fans who have been around since the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.
One thing for sure is that it’s a major headache for NBA stakeholders and there’s no obvious solution in sight, despite every fan on X/Twitter claiming they know how to fix the All-Star Game and the NBA as a whole.
Fans Demand a Revert to the 2020 All-Star Game Format
An overriding theme during this year’s All-Star Weekend was a longing for the past.
Specifically, fans on social media were looking back at the 2020 All-Star Game with extreme nostalgia, leading to several tweets about it getting major traction. In the eyes of fans, 2020 was the last time there was a truly great All-Star Weekend (and if you watched it back then, you’ll remember it was a highly competitive face-off between Team LeBron and Team Giannis).
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1229259270857691136
It’s indisputable that the 2020 format was great, as each quarter counted towards charity, the fourth quarter was unlimited, and the target score was 24 points more than the leading team’s score after the third. The issue, though, is that the NBA did stick with this format for a little while, but it quickly got stale. Because of this, the NBA had to change the format, which is what they did once again this year.
It’s completely understandable why some NBA fans look back on the 2020 All-Star Weekend with fondness, but they shouldn’t forget that the format quickly lost its magic soon after that. There’s also a failure to remember that the reason why the 2020 game reached such heights was because Kobe had recently passed away, and every player was fired up, which led to the game itself being so great.
Future Changes to the All-Star Game Expected to Come
According to reports, following the awful reviews of the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, future changes are already in the pipeline. Really, this shouldn’t come as too much of a shock. One of the changes being discussed is potentially adding a 1v1 tournament with a $1 million prize. Undoubtedly, there will be more potential changes being discussed in the background, too.
Whether these changes will happen remains to be seen, but adding them will definitely help return All-Star Weekend to its former glory. Until then, it will be a case of waiting to see what the NBA hierarchy decides regarding potential format changes and new features that might (or might not) be introduced in 2026.
Is the NBA In Trouble?
Outside of fixing the All-Star Game, the NBA has something even bigger to fix— the league itself.
Really, the All-Star Game is just a symptom of something much more serious. For almost half a decade now, NBA ratings have been decreasing, with overall viewership down 5% from last season. This is fast becoming a scary trend, which is especially scary when you consider that the NFL, MLB, and most other major American sports leagues are experiencing a significant increase in viewership.
Clearly, this is an NBA problem— and it needs to be solved quickly before the league completely collapses.
If there was a quick-fix solution to the NBA’s ongoing viewership problem, you can bet it would already have been made. The truth is that there is no immediate answer, as the problems are pretty wide-ranging:
- Games have turned into 3-point shooting contests
- There’s a serious lack of intensity at times
- The league lacks proper promotion of new big-name stars
- Seasons are overly long and have too many back-to-backs
This is barely scratching the surface, either, as there are many other fan-driven complaints the NBA currently has to deal with. Looking at the bigger picture, it seems as though the league will have to address these issues head-on over the coming five years (while implementing new and exciting changes) if it wants to give itself any chance at reviving the NBA and restoring the glory days from before. This will be a gigantic challenge.
According to Gamble USA, NBA betting is still booming, so it’s not all bad news. Clearly, despite a drop in viewership, fans still love to bet on the NBA. There’s also a lot of exciting young talent coming through the NBA right now — including Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama — which is great to see.
Plus, the general hope remains that the NBA’s new streaming and TV deals will help make watching the NBA more accessible than it’s ever been, potentially leading to better viewership numbers.
Summary
Is it time for NBA fans to panic? Not just yet, although the alarm bells are ringing. Naturally, the next few seasons will be vital for the NBA as it looks to recover from its recent viewership drop and fan complaints, so a lot needs to be done. Fixing next year’s 2026 All-Star Game should be one of the priorities, that’s for sure. On top of this, the format and structure of the NBA itself need to be revamped, while TV deals and streaming options should be done in a way that prioritizes the fans, making it as easy as possible for them to watch games on the go without having to shell out tons of cash to watch their teams play.
Only once the NBA starts ticking these boxes can it start to get back on track and thrive again.
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