A rising Yankee star boosted the Home Run Derby to its largest audience since the last time it took place at Yankee Stadium.
The 2017 MLB Home Run Derby earned a combined television audience of 8.5 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes Monday night, the largest audience for the event since 2008 (9.1M) and the fourth-largest audience in at least 20 years.
Aaron Judge‘s win trails only the aforementioned 2008 edition — at Yankee Stadium — and Ken Griffey Jr.‘s back-to-back wins in 1998 (9.2M) and 1999 (8.9M).
The English-language broadcast on ESPN had a 4.6 final rating and 8.1 million viewers, up 44% in ratings and 48% in viewership from last year (3.2, 5.5M) and up 10% and 15% respectively from 2015 (4.2, 7.1M).
The Derby generated a streaming audience of 210,000 viewers, a record for MLB on ESPN’s digital platforms. With those viewers added to the mix, it scored 8.7 million viewers.
Compared to other sports, the Home Run Derby easily topped the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night (5.7M) and the actual NBA All-Star Game (7.8M). It also outdrew the NFL Pro Bowl (7.4M).
Kansas City led all markets with a 13.6 rating, with New York City ranking second at a 10.8 — the market’s highest rating for the Derby in at least 20 years. Hartford, Conn. (9.7), Minneapolis-St. Paul (8.7) and Pittsburgh (7.9) rounded out the top five.
[Mon. numbers from ESPN PR 7.11a, 7.11b]
