Knicks Are Hottest NBA Ticket as International Sales Grow

Following an exciting run to the second round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs and offseason trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, the New York Knicks have reclaimed the title of basketball’s hottest ticket. As of Oct. 7, season sales for the Knicks were up 48% versus the same point last year, and they were outselling the No. 2 Boston Celtics by 36%, according to data from StubHub.

Tuesday night’s season opener between the Knicks and Celtics was the most in-demand game of the year on the platform. New York appears in six of the top 10 games, with the other five hosted in Madison Square Garden. “That’s a fan base that’s hungry and ready to see a team perform,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said.

The Celtics’ 18th championship earned in June has boosted their ticket sales by nearly a factor of two and pushed them ahead of the Lakers, who had claimed the top spot on StubHub’s list in five of the previous six seasons, excluding the pandemic year.

The list of the top 10 most in-demand teams is dominated by big markets and does not include the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose sales jumped roughly 275% over last season, the most of any NBA franchise. The Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers were the next biggest risers.

The league on the whole is a riser, as StubHub has seen a 32% increase in ticket sales. Purchases from outside the United States and Canada have increased proportionately, with ticket buyers on StubHub and its international marketplace, viagogo, coming from 127 countries, up from 92 in 2023 and 68 in 2022.

“As international buyers increase, they have more likelihood to purchase [before the season] given the fact that they’re traveling across the globe and planning ahead about their trips, so that’s sparking a little bit of that wave early on,” Budelli said. 

The Lakers and Knicks each had 32% of their ticket sales leading up to the season come from international buyers, behind only the Brooklyn Nets’ 44%. The teams leading this category tend to play in cities that attract tourists, with the Orlando Magic ranking fourth at 29%.

The NBA tied an all-time high with 125 international players on opening night rosters to begin the 2024-25 season, an increase from 101 a decade ago. This is coming off a summer in which a record 81 current and former NBA players appeared in the Paris Olympics.

“This year’s summer Olympics is certainly driving that continued NBA and basketball interest globally,” Budelli said.