Why Ballers Ended With Season 5 (Was It Canceled?)

Summary Ballers is enjoying a surge in popularity due to its Netflix debut, leaving new fans curious about why it was canceled after season 5 on HBO.
Despite its continued success and strong fanbase, the show was canceled due to declining viewer ratings and decreasing reviews with each subsequent season.
Ballers’ move to Netflix is a result of a licensing deal by Warner Bros. Discovery, allowing HBO shows to have releases on Netflix, giving the series a second life on a new platform.
Thanks to its Netflix debut, Ballers is seeing a new surge in popularity, and this fresh crop of fans are likely wondering why it was canceled after season 5 ended on HBO. The sports dramedy stars Dwayne Johnson as a retired NFL player who struggles to find his footing as a financial manager to the athletes he once played alongside. Ballers, which premiered in 2015, remains well-liked in 2023, four years after its time on HBO came to a close. Given the show’s continued success, it seems strange that it didn’t have a longer stay on the network or instead find a second life on the HBO-adjacent streaming service Max.
Clearly considered a premiere offering, Ballers is a reason to subscribe to whichever platform it happens to be streaming on. Plus, Ballers is packed with real NFL players and athlete cameos, making it an undeniably fun watch even four years after the finale. These reasons make it all the more questionable why the show was canceled when it was.
Ballers Season 5’s Cancelation Explained
Interestingly, HBO never officially stated why it canceled Ballers, but one look at the show’s declining viewer ratings makes it clear. While Ballers isn’t based on a true story, it features real-life inspirations, which immediately made it a must-watch show for football fans. Aptly dubbed the “NFL version of Entourage,” in part because it shared a creator, Ballers isn’t game-changing television, but it’s certainly an entertaining series that’s bolstered tremendously by Dwayne Johnson’s constant charm. After a well-received first season, however, Ballers failed to keep its head in the game.
The show’s reviews dropped significantly between the first and second seasons, with few critics even bothering to rate the sports dramedy’s last two seasons. Of course, that’s indicative of the show’s larger issue: its viewer ratings also steadily dropped off with each subsequent season. Ahead of season 5, there was another considerable dip, which cemented Ballers’ fate by mid-2019. According to Nielsen, Ballers season 1 garnered an average of 1.70 million views per episode, yet by season 5, that number dropped to 490,000 views per episode (via TVSeriesFinale).
How Many Episodes Of Ballers There Are
In total, Ballers’ five seasons contain just 47 episodes, but, even so, it’s still considered one of the best football shows of all time by viewers. In its first three seasons, the series landed 10-episode deals. As the show went on, the total per-season episode counts fell slightly. While Ballers season 4 boasted nine episodes, the final season had just eight installments. While not a huge difference, the decrease in episodes might have correlated to the show’s overall budget, which was a direct result of lackluster ratings and reviews. Losing out on the means to fully relate the story at hand is never a good sign for a series.
Why Ballers Is Streaming On Netflix (Despite Being An HBO Show)
In mid-2023, Warner Bros. Discovery put forth a licensing deal, which confirmed that several quintessential HBO shows would have Netflix releases over the next few months. Given that HBO’s premium content is one of the main reasons viewers subscribe to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, the decision may seem surprising. However, it’s not the first time HBO’s content has been farmed out: roughly a decade ago, Prime Video boasted a few top-tier HBO shows as part of a short-lived licensing agreement. With streamers struggling to navigate today’s subscription-based landscape, licensing deals hold incredible value, especially for shows like Ballers, which can be given second lives on a new platform.
Sources: TVSeriesFinale