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How many games are in the NBA season?

With various changes altering the NBA schedule in recent years, here’s a look at the total number of games played in an NBA season after combining various components and looking at the evolution of the NBA schedule.  

By Karan Jain

Jan 27, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (left) and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (right) greet each other after the game at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Jan 27, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (left) and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (right) greet each other after the game at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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In its early days, the NBA (or the BAA or the first three seasons) was a far cry from what it is today. In the first-ever “BAA” season in 1946-47, 11 teams participated in the league with two teams playing 61 games each while the rest played 60 each, meaning a total of 331 regular season games took place.

This lack of uniformity in the number of games played by each team was actually a feature of the early NBA seasons. When the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merged to form a 17-team NBA, the number of games played by each team varied from 62 to 68 games with each team in their respective divisions ranked by win percentage to decided the seeding.

While losing various teams to competitor leagues and bankruptcy, the NBA settled on a uniform 72-game schedule for its teams, starting from the 1953-54 season. 

Finally, in 1967-68, the NBA landed on the magic number of 82 for its then 12-team league after gradually increasing the number of games for each team in this period. Between 1967 and now, the league has gone up from 12 to 30 teams while maintaining the same number of games, coinciding with unprecedented growth for the league and the sport of basketball.

With the exception of lockout (2011-12) and pandemic-shortened (2019-20 and 2020-21) seasons, the NBA has had 30 teams playing 82 regular-season games each since 2004 when the league expanded to 30 teams for the first time. This meant a total of 1230 regular-season games took place.

For the 2023-24 season and beyond, an in-season tournament was introduced. For the most part, the games in this group and knockout tournament structure count toward the regular season. However, the tournament final is not made part of the regular season.

While the number (1230) of regular season games has stayed the same in the last 20 years, it's fair to say an extra meaningful game has been added to the usual October-Early April schedule with a trophy on the line.

The number of games in the playoffs vary from series to series with best of seven series across all four rounds, a structure that’s been in place since 2003. Since 2021, a play-in tournament has been introduced for the last two playoff spots in each conference, adding six games to the usual post-season proceedings. 

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