SAN ANTONIO – Victor Wembanyama is must-watch TV.
When the French rookie phenom took the floor Wednesday night against the Dallas Mavericks in his first regular season NBA game for the San Antonio Spurs, millions of people were watching.
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The anticipation for the generational talent was evident as the Spurs-Mavs game was the most-watched NBA regular season-opening game in 11 years.
According to the NBA, 2.99 million viewers watched the game on ESPN.
The game was also the most-watched Mavs-Spurs regular season game on ESPN ever, outside of Christmas Day matchups.
Other impressive stats: NBA League Pass viewership in Wembanyama’s native country of France was up +220% over last year’s regular season average.
“Wemby” is also lighting it up on social media, with 214 million video views, the most of any player on NBA social channels since the start of preseason.
Victor Wembanyama’s debut:
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) October 26, 2023
🏀 2.99M viewers
🏀 Most-watched Mavs/Spurs reg. season game on ESPN ever (non-Xmas)
🏀NBA League Pass viewership in France was up +220% vs. last year's regular season avg
🏀214M video views: most of any player on NBA social since start of preseason pic.twitter.com/tKHSFtLiyQ
Even though Wembanyama and the Spurs fell to the Mavs 126-119, he won the TV ratings game that night.