While much of the attention in recent weeks has been on the NBA Finals and FIFA World Cup, Major League Baseball is still fighting for viewers’ attention.

In theory, nowhere would this endeavor be harder than New York City. Despite the city’s New York Knicks fever after the team won the 2026 NBA Finals, local viewership for the New York Yankees is currently hitting multi-year highs.

YES Network announced that Yankees games so far this season are averaging 294,000 viewers across YES and the Gotham Sports app. That is the Yankees’ highest average viewership since the 2022 season.

The Yankees are also seeing strong local viewership among key adults 25-54, up 16% year-over-year.

Yankees on YES viewership is on pace for our best year since 2022! pic.twitter.com/sdORz12QAc

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 17, 2026

Nationally, however, Major League Baseball seems to be taking more of a hit from competition with FIFA and the NBA.

Nationally last week, Sunday Night Baseball between the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox averaged 1.61 million viewers. That does not include additional Peacock viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics. That is the smallest Nielsen-only audience for NBC this season. San Diego Padres-Seattle Mariners on Sunday, May 17, which averaged 1.80 million Nielsen viewers and 2.0 million viewers with Adobe Analytics, was the previous low.

On Sunday afternoon, ABC aired its first regular-season game of the season between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants. The game averaged 1.41 million viewers. In the small handful of MLB games ABC has aired since 2020, that is the least-watched game.

On Saturday primetime, the Philadelphia Phillies-Milwaukee Brewers game averaged 420,000 viewers on FS1. (The broadcast co-existed with local broadcasts in both home markets.) That window was initially scheduled as a regional Baseball Night in America game on Fox (Houston Astros-Kansas City Royals was the other game) but was later switched to air two more World Cup matches on Fox. A full comparison for FS1 was unavailable, but that is generally on the higher end of MLB regular-season viewership on the network.

While national viewership against the World Cup was mediocre to poor for Major League Baseball, it is facing stiff competition and still keeping viewers tuned in. MLB’s bread and butter has always been local viewership, and it is keeping that strong in one of its most important markets.

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