Ratings up, Competitiveness down: The All-Star game and its numbers

The ratings of the 2024 All-Star game showed a 14% increase in viewership, reaching 5.5 million people watching the event. This numbers show a respectable turn of events regarding last year, when those numbers plummeted. But is this a good sign?

Last year the All-Star game reached its lowest point in amount of viewers. At that moment, only two networks broadcasted the event, TNT and TBS, leading to 4.6 million of viewers. This time, in addition to those two networks, the event benefited from multiple alternate broadcasts, such as TruTV, B/R Sports and it was also available on Max. This is the most accurate explanation about that sudden rise in ratings.

But the game? Well, the game wasn't attractive at all. Despite NBA comissioner efforts, that include ask the players to play with more commitment on defense, the match was completedly broken from the start. Nobody played defense, not even a little bit. There were situations in which we saw 6 players on screen, and the rest didn't even run to occupy their place in the posession, they weren't on screen for an entire "play". This got so bad that the game ended with nearly 400 total points.

There's no doubt that there's a market for this product, despite its quality. Bringing back the old East vs West format helped, and so did other things. The Daytona 500 was scheduled at Sunday's afternoon, but got postponed until Monday, that helped too. The All-Star Game also falls on the first Sunday after the Super Bowl and in the evening after the NHL Stadium Series, giving it its own runway for sports fans.

There will be a lot to discuss in order to increase the quality of the game, the players aren't risking anything, more so if we remember that 65-games-played threshold rule that a lot of main icons in the league weren't so pleased to hear. Good ratings for Adam Silver, and a lot to work for the future of All-Star games.