The Major League Baseball All-Star Game hit yet another record-low in the ratings, but remains the most-watched All-Star event in sports.
Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game averaged a record-low 3.9 rating and 7.01 million viewers on FOX (7.09M across all platforms), down 7% from the previous lows set last year (4.2, 7.51M). All-Star viewership has now hit a new low in five of the past seven years the game has been played (2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023). Less than a decade ago in 2014, the game averaged a 7.0 and 11.34 million.
The Midsummer Classic, which peaked with 7.57 million from 9:15-9:30 PM ET, remains the most-watched All-Star event in sports — ranking comfortably ahead of the second-place NFL “Pro Bowl Games” on ABC, ESPN and DisneyXD in January (6.28M), the previous night’s MLB Home Run Derby on ESPN and ESPN2 (6.11M) and the NBA All-Star Game on TNT and TBS in February (4.59M).
That was not the case in adults 18-49, where the game’s 1.61 rating trailed both the Derby (1.81) and NBA (1.76). (It still outdrew the “Pro Bowl Games” in the demo, which drew a combined 1.59.)
Ratings in adults 18-49 actually increased slightly year-over-year, rising 4% from last year’s record-low 1.55. As for the other key demos, ratings fell 3% in 18-34 (from 1.05 to 1.02) and held steady in 25-54 (1.96). (The 1% of adults 18-34 who watched the All-Star Game accounted for 21% of the demographic’s viewing Tuesday night.)
In addition to topping other All-Star events, the game delivered television’s largest primetime audience in nearly a month — since Game 5 of the NBA Finals on ABC (13.1M) — and the largest audience on any Fox Corporation platform since the Super Bowl.
Host market Seattle led all markets Tuesday with an 8.4 rating and 31 share, followed by Atlanta — home of the MLB-leading Braves — at a 7.5/24. Baltimore ranked third at a 6.5/19, with Cincinnati (6.2/17) and Philadelphia (5.3/15) rounding out the top five.
Notably, both the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby averaged more viewers than any of last year’s MLB Postseason games outside of the World Series. The most-watched of those was Yankees-Astros Game 2 in the ALCS, which averaged 5.89 million on TBS.
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 7.12)
