One Month In, MLB Viewership And Attendance Are Up, Likely Fueled By Rule Changes And Schedule

It’s just one-fifth of the season. The sample size is still small. But, early trends in television viewership and attendance are trending positively for Major League Baseball after some of the most consequential rule changes in its history have been implemented in an attempt to quicken pace and increase action.

It’s important to note that scheduling and other factors can push the needle up or down this early in the season. Context around early numbers are critical in trying to make sense of the numbers. Team competitiveness and schedule play heavily before school is out and vacationing hits in the summer months. Still, the numbers are trending positively, and networks and the league will take the win. The true measure won’t be known until October, but until then, here’s where we’re at.

ESPN enters its 34th season of Sunday Night Baseball and its second with season with David Cone, Eduardo Perez, and Karl Ravech in the booth. The Worldwide Leader brings back the “umpire cam” which was first used in 2002. There have only been four games on SNB thus far this year. Compared to last year at this time, viewership is down. But that’s largely driven by the fact that ESPN aired a Yankees-Red Sox game early in 2022 and the rivalry and large national brands that the two have skewed the numbers.

Opening Night drew 1.5 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, which was up +4% from 2022. The Astros-Rangers game saw average viewership of 994,000, down -10% from the Easter Sunday game in 2022 with the Padres and Braves. Most recently, the Mets-Giants game saw average viewership of 1.3 million, which is up +8% from the same game slot last year.

Back to the overall, if a Yankees-Red Sox game were in the mix early in the season, would ESPN’s numbers be up? Seems likely. Taking last year’s NYY-BOS game out, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball is up 11% one month into the season.

Beyond ESPN, TBS viewership for their national MLB broadcasts was up +69% versus last year through the first two season’s games. To add, MLB Network primetime Games are averaging 199,000 viewers, up +3.6% from last year’s 192,000 viewers.

For the first time since the 1950s, all 30 teams played on Opening Day and that had a big impact for MLB Network who saw their most-watched Opening Day in the network’s history. A big part of that was the MLB Network Showcase telecast of the Giants at Yankees that saw average viewership of 348,000 viewers, the best daytime Showcase Game on MLB Network since 2012.

Again, having all 30 teams play Opening Day helped boost MLB.TV. the league’s out-of-market streaming service to its most-watched day in its history. The league informs that the Baltimore Orioles 10-9 victory over the Boston Red Sox where Adley Rutschman went 5-for-5 is the most-watched game in MLB.TV history. The Yankees 5-0 defeat of the Giants on Opening Day which saw Aaron Judge homer in his first at bat as Yankees captain is the second-most viewed game in the streaming service history. Dating to Friday, April 21, MLB.TV had 1.949 billion minutes watched, a +12% increase year-over-year at that time.

Attendance Up 5% From This Time Last Year

One month in, league attendance is also up. As of Weds, April 26 the league was averaging 26,753 per game, up +5% compared to last year when it was 25,275. All told attendance is up 549,610 compared to the same time last season. Currently, two-thirds of the league is seeing increases, while ten teams (Rockies, Giants, Tigers, Reds, Cubs, Angels, Royals, White Sox, Braves, and Red Sox) are down with Colorado (-6,304 per game), Giants (-3,084 per game), Tigers (-1,405 per game), and Reds (1,059 per game) seeing drops in the four figures.

Leading increases year-over-year are the Phillies (+10,166 per game), Yankees (+6,085 per game), Guardians (+4,883 per game), and Mariners (+4,802 per game).