Yankees-Dodgers powers second-most-watched ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ game since 2011

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Coming out of the All-Star break, Major League Baseball is again reporting strong viewership, with New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball becoming the second-most-watched Sunday Night Baseball game since 2011.

Yankees-Dodgers averaged 3.9 million viewers across NBC and Peacock on Sunday night. That is the second-most-watched Sunday Night Baseball game of the season, behind Yankees-Boston Red Sox earlier this year, which averaged 4.0 million viewers. Viewership peaked at 4.6 million viewers from 9:45 to 10 p.m. ET.

Yankees-Dodgers and Yankees-Red Sox are the two most-watched Sunday Night Baseball games since 2011, when a Yankees-Red Sox matchup averaged 4.72 million viewers on ESPN. In addition, since 2011, only one regular-season MLB game has averaged more viewers: Yankees-Chicago White Sox in the inaugural Field of Dreams Game (5.87 million).

So far this season, Sunday Night Baseball is averaging 2.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. That is up 42% from Sunday Night Baseball‘s full-season average last year on ESPN (1.83 million).

This weekend, both Fox and NBC were scheduled to utilize Dodgers-Yankees to anchor their primetime MLB slates. Unfortunately for Fox, Dodgers-Yankees on Saturday was rained out. Had it been played, the game would have benefited from a lead-in from the FIFA World Cup third-place game.

Instead, Fox aired Seattle Mariners-San Francisco Giants. Despite losing its marquee matchup, the replacement broadcast of Mariners-Giants still averaged 2.64 million viewers, the second-most-watched Fox game of the season behind the July 4 slate (Mets-Braves or Cardinals-Cubs, 3.34 million), which also benefited from a World Cup lead-in.

All told, games on Fox this season are averaging 2.27 million viewers, up 11% from last year (2.04 million).

Finally, on Thursday, ESPN aired New York Mets-Philadelphia Phillies in an exclusive window after the All-Star break. The game, which was moved up an hour due to poor air quality, averaged 1.49 million viewers, the second-most-watched game on ESPN this season.

On ESPN (excluding two games on ABC), MLB games are averaging 1.05 million viewers. This is the first season that ESPN has moved from consistent Sunday Night Baseball windows to scattered weeknight windows. As a result, viewership is down 42% compared to last season.

Looking ahead, this is the time for MLB to capitalize on its viewership momentum. With the FIFA World Cup over, MLB no longer needs to share the spotlight. That will remain the case, at least until football season ramps up in late August.

The post Yankees-Dodgers powers second-most-watched ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ game since 2011 appeared first on Awful Announcing.

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