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(Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images)
MLB viewership numbers are off to a strong start this postseason, as the Wild Card Series recorded its highest ratings since adopting the best-of-three format in 2022.
According to ESPN (which aired all 11 games), the average Wild Card game drew 4.6 million viewers, which was good for 64% a year-over-year increase. Game 3 of the Red Sox-Yankees series drew 7.4 million viewers, with a 15-minute peak of 8.4 million.
Those numbers represent dramatic increases for the Wild Card round. The average rating this postseason is better than any previous Wild Card game of the best-of-three era, while the viewership for the New York vs. Boston finale was 3.38 million more than the previous record for a Wild Card series game under the current format.
Here are a few numbers to help put the increase in perspective:
- More people watched the Yankees’ Wild Card clincher this year than Game 7 of the Rangers-Astros ALCS in 2023 (6.77 million).
- The 4.6 million average viewership for this year’s wild card round is almost equal to the 4.66 million the 2022 NLCS drew on Fox (Nielsen ratings have been adjusted in recent years to include out-of-home viewing, which may account for some of the increase).
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