“Klay Thompson’s comeback game clocks 110M views across NBA social platforms”: The Warriors guard’s ratings ranked at par with the 1997 NBA Finals featuring Michael Jordan and Karl Malone

The return of Klay Thompson with the Golden State Warriors broke several broadcasting records, racking up 110 million video views across NBA social media. 

It finally happened! Klay Thompson returned to action in the NBA after nearly 1000 days on the sidelines as the Golden State Warriors hosted Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night. A packed Chase Center welcomed the 31-year-old with roaring applause, having the crowd their money’s worth, as he opened the scoring with a layup.

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The game ended 96-82 in favor of the hosts, with Klay scoring 17 points in 20 minutes. As brilliant as those numbers are, they fall short of the multiple viewing records broken on the night.

844,000 average viewers, 12.7 averaging ratings. Everyone loves Klay Thompson

Klay Thompson is inarguably among the most adored figures in the NBA. His work-ethic, eye-pleasing shooting style and consistency are among the reason why. Proof of the same is when he returned to shoot free throws despite injuring his ACL against Toronto Raptors in the 2018 finals.

NBA fans really lived up to the hype as Klay made his much-awaited return. In fact, it racked up 110 million video views across NBA social media platforms, making it the most-viewed regular-season moment ever. His entry on the court pre-game earned 22 million views on the NBA’s Instagram account on Sunday. That number is second only to a video of Giannis Antetokounmpo celebrating his maiden championship (25 million) on the account.

Not only that, the 9th of January was etched with 103 million total views on NBA’s Insta. Steph Curry’s pre-game routine with Klay pushed that number with 16.4 million views of its own.

Further, it averaged 844,00 viewers across the game on NBA TV. That is the most-viewed regular-season game since GSW’s record-tying 72nd win in 2016 vs San Antonio Spurs. For more context, available databases show that the 2017/18 season averaged no more than 310,000 viewers on NBA TV.

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With a mean rating of 12.7 on NBC Sports Bay Area, it became the highest-rated regular-season game since 2016. That ranks it on par with the 1997 finals average rating (on CBS network) and better than 32 different NBA finals since 1974. While the bias is clear being the Warriors’ local broadcaster, it shows how much fans missed Klay.