ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball had its most-watched season in three years. Plus: numbers for NASCAR, F1 and college volleyball.
ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball season hits three-year high
ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball averaged 1.51 million viewers during the 2024 season, up 6% from last year (1.42M) and the highest average since 2019. The network’s season finale — Phillies-Mets — averaged 1.35 million on ESPN, up sharply from Dodgers-Giants last year (773K).
Notably, the Sunday night package increased 12% in adults 18-34 and an even-stronger 26% in 18-24.
In other MLB action, TBS averaged 375,000 viewers for its MLB coverage — up 2% from last year (366K), not including additional game windows added to the schedule this month. (Including those windows, TBS averaged 358,000, even with last year.) The average viewer spent 74 minutes watching TBS games this season, up 6% from last year (70 minutes) and the highest in the three seasons since it began carrying Tuesday games.
In its season finale Tuesday, TBS averaged 470,000 for Orioles-Yankees and 309,000 for Padres-Dodgers, up 36 and 32 percent respectively from last year (Cubs-Braves: 345K; Astros-Mariners: 234K). The Orioles-Yankees game ranks fifth for the season on TBS, with the Yankees having played in each of the top five.
NASCAR Bristol Night Race hits high; F1 Singapore GP down
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Bristol (Tenn.) averaged 1.87 million viewers on USA Network Saturday night, up 20% from 1.56 million last year and the largest audience for the annual Bristol Night Race in three years.
In other racing action, the F1 Singapore Grand Prix averaged 1.00 million on ESPN earlier Sunday morning — down from the past two years, but still the third-largest audience for the race. Lando Norris’ win peaked with 1.13 million during the 9:30 AM ET quarter-hour.
F1 viewership is now up 2% from the same point last year and 3% versus last year’s full-season average.
College volleyball sees second-biggest regular season audience
Leading into a Caitlin Clark WNBA playoff game, a Nebraska-Louisville NCAA volleyball match averaged 684,000 viewers on ABC last Sunday — the second-largest audience on record for regular season college volleyball. (FOX scored 1.66 million for an NFL-adjacent regional window last year.)
The match, which peaked with 808,000 viewers, topped the two other college volleyball matches on broadcast TV this year — Texas-Wisconsin (584K) and Stanford-Wisconsin (487K) on FOX over Labor Day weekend.
