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NBC leads MLB viewership as baseball posts strong midseason ratings
The Major League Baseball season is approaching the All-Star Break, and baseball is seeing strong viewership midway through the season.
NBC is leading the way in terms of baseball viewership, as it replaces ESPN for the rights to Opening Day and Sunday Night Baseball. Games on NBC are averaging 2.25 million viewers according to Nielsen through 11 games, rising to 2.51 million when including additional Peacock streaming measured by Adobe Analytics. That is up 51% from games on ESPN in the same period last year, which averaged 1.66 million through the All-Star Break.
However, there are some factors tilting the scale in NBC’s favor. Switching the package from ESPN, a cable network, to NBC, a broadcast network, will naturally increase viewership. Not to mention, NBC has aired fewer games to this point than ESPN did last season. Nielsen’s updated methodology likely also contributes to higher measured audiences.
The New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game on Sunday, June 28, leads the way so far for both NBC and baseball at large. The game averaged 3.27 million viewers according to Nielsen, rising to 4 million when including streaming. The game went into extra innings, but coverage joined the game in progress in the fourth inning due to a golf overrun.
Fox is averaging 2.24 million viewers according to Nielsen with 13 Baseball Night in America windows so far this season. A regional window on the 4th of July featuring the New York Mets against the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs, leads the way with 3.34 million viewers for Fox. That is up 7% from 2.09 million for the same period last year. That is within the range that could be explained entirely by Nielsen’s new Big Data methodology, which has generally increased sports viewership numbers, in extreme cases by as much as 15%.
ESPN’s games, including two games on ABC, have combined to average 1.12 million viewers. On ABC, Yankees-Red Sox on June 27 leads the slate with 1.99 million viewers. ABC did not air any regular-season games last year. Yankees-Kansas City Royals on the afternoon of Memorial Day is ESPN’s top game so far this season, averaging 1.63 million viewers.
ESPN’s lower viewership average this season, 1.12 million compared to 1.66 million at the same point last year, comes as a result of the shift of ESPN’s games from weekends to weeknights. ESPN aired three weekday games last year, which combined to average 1.23 million viewers, much more in line with this season’s average.
Finally, MLB Tuesday on TBS and truTV is averaging 466,000 viewers before the All-Star Break. Unlike games on the other platforms, games on TBS are generally blacked out in local markets, forcing in-market fans to watch via their regional sports network (though TBS is allowed one “co-exist” with local broadcasts). Los Angeles Dodgers-Toronto Blue Jays on April 7 leads the way for TBS, with a 708,000 viewership average. That was good enough to be the most-watched MLB Tuesday game since a Yankees-Blue Jays game during Aaron Judge’s home run chase in 2022.
TBS viewership in 2026 is up 21% from 2025, when the network averaged 385,000 viewers. Notably, according to TNT Sports, viewership among women is up 41% versus 2025.
With the 2026 NBA Finals and FIFA World Cup hitting recent viewership highs during the MLB season, it seems especially impressive that baseball is still seeing such strong viewership so far. With much of July and August not facing such competition, it will be interesting to see if MLB can build more on its viewership success.
The post NBC leads MLB viewership as baseball posts strong midseason ratings appeared first on Awful Announcing.
