Major League Baseball’s (MLB) opening weekend was marked by a significant increase in viewership for its national television partners ESPN and Fox Sports. Both broadcasters reported double-digit growth in viewership for their coverage of the games.
ESPN’s broadcast of the Texas Rangers’ opening day victory over the Chicago Cubs attracted an average of 1.58 million viewers, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ win against the St. Louis Cardinals garnered 1.82 million viewers, a 17% increase from the previous year.
Fox Sports also saw a rise in viewership during its Saturday opening weekend broadcasts featuring the New York Yankees and Houston Astros. The games drew 2.53 million viewers, a 14% increase from the previous year. MLB viewership on Fox Sports’ linear channel FS1 was the highest for any regular season game since August 2021.
MLB’s direct-to-consumer service, MLB.TV, experienced record viewership during the opening weekend as well. The Yankees’ victory over the Astros on opening day became the most-watched game ever on the platform, with over 436 million minutes watched across the four-day period.
In addition to traditional television viewership, MLB’s social media accounts gained a record number of followers (an increase of 125,900) and engagements during the opening weekend (19.8 million). The league’s app also saw a record number of visits, with over 30 million visits during the four-day period.
Looking ahead to next season, MLB is expected to start with games in Japan which is expected to further increase viewership as it has already been estimated that there will be around 17 million viewers in Japan for two-game Seoul Series that kicked off this season