More Eyeballs For Baseballs: Ohtani, Judge, Deliver Boost In MLB Viewership
Tuesday, June 10, 2025 at 12:09PM By Barry Janoff
UPDATED June 10, 2025: ESPN is generating its largest Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One audience in eight years, since 2017. Through 11 games, Sunday Night Baseball is averaging 1,749,000 million viewers, up 12 percent from last year.
ESPN’s coverage of the Boston Red Sox victory over the New York Yankees on the June 8 edition of Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One averaged 1,919,000 viewers and peaked with 2,236,000, up 28% from last year’s Sunday Night Baseball season average.
June 3, 2025: MLB began its 2025 season with two games in Japan between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, with the boon in viewership, marketing, retail sales and activation jump-starting what has become a rambunctious season for the league.
MLB said the series set league records for viewership, merchandise sales and attendance, “making it the largest standalone international event in Major League Baseball history.”
In May, the league staged its first official Rivalry Weekend. According to MLB, the four days of rivalries May 15-18 — which included the Subway Series, Freeway Series, Silver Boot Series and the Vedder Cup — saw a rise ins in attendance, viewership, streaming engagement and merchandise sales.
The league now says viewership in both the U.S. and Japan “continues to grow in the wake of rule changes that have made the game more entertaining and with the stars of the game, like reigning MVPs Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, exciting fans with brilliant performances.”
With more than two months of the season completed, MLB said Fox, ESPN and TBS have all registered viewership gains of double-digit percentages for MLB games this season.
In addition, MLB said its games on Japan’s NHK and streaming on MLB.TV are also up significantly.
MLB on Fox is +10% versus last year with average viewership of 1.841 million viewers per game.
ESPN’s MLB coverage has increased +22% versus last year, with average viewership of 1.740 million viewers per game. This season marks the most-watched MLB season on ESPN to this point in eight years (since 2017).
Viewership for MLB Tuesday on TBS is up +16% vs. last year, and the best-ever start for its regular season Tuesday coverage. This also includes a +69% year-over-year increase in viewership among the P18-34 demographic.
In addition, the MLB Network Showcase Game telecast series has seen a +13% rise in viewership over 2024, including +13% in the 18-34 demographic. Many of MLB Network’s studio shows are pacing ahead of 2024 in viewership, including the Emmy-nominated MLB Central (+3%), Intentional Talk (+7%), and Quick Pitch (+3%).
In Japan, MLB viewership across NHK channels has grown +22% with an average audience of 2.7 million viewers. This average does not include the Tokyo Series, the first two games of the year featuring the Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers which averaged 24 million viewers per game. NHK viewership is on pace to be MLB’s most-watched regular season ever in Japan and the fifth-straight viewership gain since 2021.
On MLB.TV, streaming viewership has increased +27% vs 2024, which was the most-watched season in the history of the service. For games through Monday, June 2, MLB.TV has more than 7.5 billion minutes watched this season.
The first game of the Tokyo Series drew an average of more than 25 million viewers across all platforms making it the most-watched MLB game ever in Japan.s
The second game of the Tokyo Series averaged more than 23 million viewers across all platforms making it the second most-watched MLB game in Japan’s history.
In the U.S., where the game started at 5 AM local time in Chicago and 3 AM local time in Los Angeles, the first game of the Tokyo Series averaged 838,000 viewers on Fox.
The first game average was a +139% increase over last year’s 350,000 viewers for the first game of the Seoul Series which also featured the Dodgers. Together, Game 1 and Game 2 (361,000 viewers on FS1) averaged 590,000 viewers, an increase of +59% over last year’s average for the Seoul Series.
With a total attendance of 1,608,475 and average attendance of 35,744, Rivalry Weekend was MLB’s best-attended weekend prior to Memorial Day Weekend since 2012 on both measures. The May 18 New York Mets vs. New York Yankees Subway Series game averaged 2.539 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-watched Sunday Night Baseball game in seven years (2018).
MLB First Rivalry Weekend Saw Rise In Attendance, Viewership, Merch Sales
MLB Tokyo Series Scores Big, Sets Marks In Media, Merchandise, Marketing
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