2014 MLB All-Star Game Up Slightly, Hits Four-Year High

The numbers were still among the lowest ever, but the 2014 MLB All-Star Game managed to hit a four-year high in ratings and viewership on FOX.

The 2014 MLB All-Star Game earned a 7.0 rating and 11.3 million viewers on FOX Tuesday night, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — up a tick in ratings and 3% in viewership from last year (6.9, 11.0M), up 3% and 4%, respectively, from 2012 (6.8, 10.9M), and the highest rated and most-watched edition of the game since 2010 (7.5, 12.1M).

As FOX noted in a press release, this marks the first time since the 1994 strike that television ratings have improved for the All-Star Game in consecutive years.

Despite the improved numbers, this year’s All-Star Game still ranks as the fourth-lowest rated and least-viewed ever. Including the 2010 game, each of the bottom five has taken place in this decade. Prior to the start of the decade, the lowest rated and least-viewed All-Star Game managed an 8.1 and 12.3 million viewers (2005).

The MLB All-Star Game drew a higher rating than the NFL Pro Bowl (7.0 to 6.7), but had slightly fewer viewers (11.3M to 11.4M). This marks the fifth straight year the Pro Bowl has been the most-watched pro sports All-Star game. The NBA All-Star Game finished much further behind with a 4.3 and 7.5 million on TNT, albeit against the Winter Olympics.

Compared to other sporting events, the All-Star Game topped the final round of The Masters (6.8, 11.0M) and the rain-delayed Daytona 500 (5.6, 9.3M).

Host-city Minneapolis was the top market for the All-Star Game with a 16.6 rating, the market’s top performance for the exhibition in six years. Detroit (15.1), St. Louis (14.3), Pittsburgh (12.4) and Milwaukee (12.0) rounded out the top five. In New York, home market for retiring Yankees SS Derek Jeter, the game drew an 11.9 rating — up 5% from last year, when it was the host city.

Ratings for the game in the adults 18-49 demographic were not immediately available.

(Tue. numbers from Fox Sports)

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 3

Cha-Ka says:

12 years ago

Why is it that the SOCCER haters try to explain away the large World Cup viewership as a product of everyone having nothing else to watch in the Summer. This explanation fails to explain the sharp drop in MLB All Star viewers over a two decade period from 1994-2014. It’s not like there was an NFL game going on and the NBA finals where over. So why did the American sports audience decide they no longer would watch the Summer Classic like they used to?.

After all it’s a prime time sporting event in a time period no other major sports are going on , so you would think more sports fans would tune in just to get their sport fix. Sure people have multiple ways to consume entertainment that wasn’t available two decades ago , cable TV has more original programming in the Summer, yet viewership for the World Cup keeps increasing for the American audience.

Back in 1982 when ABC only showed the World Cup final LIVE Italy vs West Germany with commercial interruptions (ESPN showed a few matches and even PBS had a daily highlight show 1 hour match of the day) not many Americans consider this a major event they had to watch. The Olympics where the only major international sporting event that was viewed in large numbers. In 1986 with the World Cup in Mexico City NBC showed 7 matches including the final with commercial interruptions (on weekend) while ESPN showed 15 matches on weekdays. If you wanted to watch more matches then you had to watch on American Spanish language station SIN.

In 1990 TBS owned all the rights to the World Cup and yes they had commercial breaks even for the final. I am pretty sure they didn’t show all the matches and they only paid $7.75 million for the rights. The highest rated match on TNT was USA vs Czechoslovakia 850,000 viewers. I was unable to find the combined viewership for Argentina vs West Germany. It had to be small nothing like the 18.1m that viewed the 1994 final.
- Cha-Ka says:
  
  12 years ago
  
  Just wanted to clarify that in 1990 you could have watched more of the World Cup with no commercials on Univision ( Spanish TV Rights American broadcast) as TBS owned the English broadcasting rights. 1982 was the first time an American English language broadcaster ABC showed a World Cup final live. It was not till 1994 that TV networks stopped breaking into the live coverage with commercial breaks.
  
  Read these 2 links for the history of World Cup broadcasting in the USA as it also goes into the 1970’s when in 1978 no American English language broadcaster was showing the World Cup not even the final. If you wanted to watch Argentina’s victory over Netherlands in English you needed to find an establishment showing the match on closed circuit TV. Once again American Spanish broadcaster SIN showed the World Cup, but you needed to live in a metro area that had a large enough Spanish speaking population to broadcast this network. Going back even further you could have watched tape delayed highlights (1 week old) of the World Cup first in 1970 on ABC Wide World of Sports and 1974 CBS Sports Spectacular using BBC feed with BBC commentators. 1966 NBC showed Germany vs England final on a two hour film delay using black& white BBC feed and Jim Simpson called the action
  
  http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2014/06/09/american-world-cup-rights-fees-soar-along-with-viewership/
  
  http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9F6VLU00.htm
Cha-Ka says:

12 years ago

The last time the MLB All Star Game had more then 20 million viewers was 1995 (1989 marked the last time over 25 million viewers watched) 20,163,000. 2001 is the last time the MLB All Star Game had more them 15 million viewers 16,029,000. The 2012 MLB All Star Game reached an all time low when it dipped below 11 million viewers.

Know consider this 17.3m alone viewed the World Cup final Argentina vs Germany on ABC and the last time the MLB All Star Game had that many viewers was in 1999 with 17.6m. Nobody and I mean nobody (Unless your Nostradamus) would have said back in 1982 , 1986, 1990 and even 1994 that some day the FIFA World Cup Final will outdraw the MLB All Star Game on a English language TV station.2010 World Cup Final on ABC also beat the MLB All Star Game 15.9m vs 12.1m.

Speaking of 1994 the MLB ALL STAR Game was still popular enough that it had more viewers 22m then the combined ABC/Univision audience Brazil vs Italy 18.1m. In 2006 MLB could still beat the World Cup Final when you only include ABC viewers it’s 14.4m vs 11.9m. No longer can MLB beat the combined American viewer ship for the World Cup Final 16.9m.

The first time more Americans watched a SOCCER match then a MLB ALL Star Game was the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final USA vs China 18.0m viewers vs 17.6m. In 2011 once again the Women’s FIFA World Cup Final USA vs Japan 13.5m outdrew the MLB ALL Star Game 11m The last time the ALL STAR game had more then 13.5m VIEWERS WAS IN 2009.