Rascasse Audience Intelligence

NBA Fan Demographics in United States

NBA has an estimated audience of 114M people in United States.

#1among Basketball in United States
#3among events in United States#10in Sports

The average NBA fan in United States is 36.0 years old, more male, and lives primarily in California.

By number of fans, NBA ranks #1 among the 2667 objects in Basketball in United States — 11.8× the group median.

Its fans are 3.4 years older than the group average of 32.6.

Compared with the other 2666 objects in Basketball, NBA fans stand out for their interest in 7-Eleven, San Francisco 49ers and United Airlines.

Interest is seasonal: March, April and May account for 49% of the year's searches, September is the quietest month.

Most fans live in California, New York, Texas.

Top affinities include NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA playoffs, with strongest over-indexing on NBA Finals (1.91× the country average).

The typical NBA fan in United States is more male, around 36.0 years old, with a notable affinity for NBA Finals.

Category: Sports · Type: Event · Subtype: Basketball

Data status: Q3/2026 · Source & method

Section 01

At a glance

Audience size
114M
in United States
Gender
39.3%♀
60.7% male
Age
36.0
average years
Country rank
#50
among all objects in United States
Fig. 01

Search interest · 12-month trend

+31%
vs. last year
JanMarMayJulSepNov
Monthly searches · Source: Rascasse Solution
Section 02

Demographics of NBA fans

39.3% are female, 60.7% are male, average age 36.0.

Fig. 02

Gender split

39.3%
Female
60.7%
Male
Demographic split for NBA audience in United States
MetricValue
Female39.3%
Male60.7%
Average age36.0
Estimated audience size114M
Fig. 03

Age distribution

Ø 36.0
average years
Age distribution of the NBA audience in United States
Age bracketShare%
16-2430%
25-3422%
35-4418%
45-5416%
55+14%
Fig. 04

Worldwide distribution

35.3%

of the worldwide NBA audience comes from United States.

Worldwide audience distribution share by country for NBA
CountryShare
United States35.3%
China6.1%
Japan6.0%
Section 03
Affinity (×) = how much more likely a member of this audience is to live in a region than the United States average. Example: 2.0× means twice as concentrated as the national baseline.

Geography

Fig. 05

Top regions by affinity

NBA fans by region: top regions in United States
#RegionReachAffinity×
01California~22M1.66×
02Massachusetts~3.5M1.50×
03New York~10M1.47×
04New Jersey~4.5M1.41×
05Arizona~3.5M1.32×
06Hawaii~600K1.32×
07Minnesota~2.5M1.29×
08Nevada~1.5M1.27×
09Rhode Island~500K1.25×
10Illinois~5.5M1.24×
11Connecticut~1.5M1.19×
12Colorado~2.5M1.17×
13Texas~9M1.16×
14Maryland~2.5M1.15×
15Oregon~1.5M1.14×
16Florida~8M1.11×
17Oklahoma~1.5M1.09×
18Washington, District of Columbia~300K1.07×
19Georgia~4M1.04×
20Washington~2.5M1.04×
21Delaware~400K1.04×
22Alaska~200K1.02×
23Wisconsin~2M1.01×
24Virginia~3M1.00×
25Indiana~2.5M1.00×
26North Carolina~3.5M0.99×
27Utah~1M0.99×
28Pennsylvania~4.5M0.97×
29Michigan~3.5M0.97×
30Ohio~4M0.95×
31Maine~400K0.95×
32New Hampshire~400K0.95×
33New Mexico~700K0.93×
34Mississippi~900K0.91×
35North Dakota~200K0.89×
36Louisiana~1.5M0.87×
37Vermont~200K0.85×
38South Carolina~1.5M0.81×
39Arkansas~800K0.80×
40South Dakota~200K0.79×
41Tennessee~2M0.77×
42Missouri~1.5M0.74×
43Kentucky~1M0.72×
44Iowa~800K0.71×
45Kansas~700K0.70×
46Idaho~400K0.70×
47Alabama~1M0.67×
48Nebraska~500K0.67×
49Montana~200K0.66×
50West Virginia~300K0.56×
Fig. 06

Affinity by region

Affinity by region — NBA, United States
0.56×1.00×1.66×
Section 04
Brands and objects ranked by affinity with this audience. Values above 1.0× mean over-representation compared with the country average.

Audience interests & affinities

Fig. 07

Top cross-interests, ranked by affinity

Affinities of the NBA audience vs. the country average
#·InterestCategoryAffinity×
01NBA FinalsSports1.91×
02Cleveland CavaliersSports1.91×
03NBA playoffsSports1.87×
04NBA on ESPNSports1.87×
05LeBron JamesSports1.86×
06Los Angeles LakersSports1.86×
07Miami HeatSports1.80×
08Portland Trail BlazersSports1.80×
09Chicago BullsSports1.75×
10Boston CelticsSports1.74×
117-ElevenShopping1.73×
12San Francisco 49ersSports1.73×
13Dallas MavericksSports1.73×
14Stephen CurrySports1.73×
15United AirlinesTravel & Leisure1.67×
16New York KnicksSports1.61×
17Super BowlSports1.59×
18Michael JordanSports1.57×
19Tom BradySports1.54×
20Milwaukee BucksSports1.52×
Section 05
Strongest and weakest personality traits of this audience (1.0 = country average).

Personality of the NBA audience

Fig. 08

Deviation from the national baseline

↑ What stands out
The strongest tendencies
Personality traits of the NBA audience vs. the country average · What stands out
TraitClusterDeviationScore
Social Media UsageJOY0.95×
Sports ActivityPOWER0.86×
Early Adopter MentalityPOWER0.86×
0×1.00× baseline2×
↓ Rather not
The weakest tendencies
Personality traits of the NBA audience vs. the country average · Rather not
TraitClusterDeviationScore
SustainabilityBALANCE0.65×
TraditionCONSERVATISM0.69×
Community OrientationOPEN0.71×
0×1.00× baseline2×
Appendix

Explore more audiences

More Basketball audiences in United States

See NBA audiences in other countries

Source & method

Source
Rascasse Solution, own modelling
What “fans” means here
Estimated number of people in United States with measurable interest in NBA over the last 12 months. Modelled, not counted; people interested in several events count for each of them.
Data basis
Anonymised behavioural signals: search demand, social media signals, sponsorship and event data. Not a survey.
Period
10/2025 – 09/2026 · updated quarterly · data status Q3/2026
Confidence
high gender and age data available and an audience of at least 100,000 people

Cite as: “Rascasse Solution, Q3/2026, rascasse.com/explore/us/nba-4321” · Methodology