Mid Season Surge: Major League Baseball Sees Boost in Attendance and TV Ratings

Major League Baseball (MLB) is going from strength-to-strength, building on the momentum for a successful 2023.

During Tuesday’s All-Star Game, the league and its national media partner Fox Sports attracted an average audience of 7.6 million viewers across various platforms, marking a 6% increase from last year. This solidifies the All-Star Game as the most-watched event in all of U.S. professional sports. Notably, Pittsburgh emerged as the top individual market for the first time in almost five decades, a fact highlighted by Fox Sports executive Michael Mulvihill. The buzz in the Steel City was undoubtedly fueled by the excitement surrounding Pirates’ rookie pitcher Paul Skenes, who made a splash by starting the game for the National League and quickly becoming a standout in the baseball world.

While the All-Star Game viewership surge is significant, it is just one in a series of positive indicators for the league this season:

• Attendance:  MLB is seeing an average of 28,805 tickets sold per game, a near 1% increase from last year, maintaining the impressive 9.6% upsurge from 2023, largely attributed to the successful implementation of MLB’s pitch clock. Despite the low attendance of the soon-to-relocate A’s at 7,731 per game, merely 60% of the next lowest, the Marlins, the league continues to thrive.
• National TV Ratings: Both ESPN and Fox are experiencing upticks in MLB coverage viewership. ESPN is up by 6% to an average of 1.59 million viewers per game, while Fox is enjoying a comparable 7% rise to an average of 1.98 million viewers per game.
• The Draft: MLB’s efforts to spotlight its draft and young talent are yielding positive results. The first-round draft coverage on ESPN and MLB Network combined attracted an average audience of 863,000 viewers, marking a 16% increase from the previous year and the event’s second-best viewership on record.

Despite these successes, MLB faces remaining challenges, including uncertainties surrounding the A’s, rectifications needed for Nike-designed uniforms, the status of the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group, and economic disparities within the game.

In contrast, Monday’s Home Run Derby, with an average audience of 5.45 million, saw an 11% decline, the weakest performance since 2014. The viewership dip is attributed to an adjusted competitive format that couldn’t replicate the thrills of previous years.

Regular-season MLB action will resume with 14 games on Friday.