The first season of “Sunday Night Baseball” on NBC finished at a multi-year viewership high, with some caveats.
The 14 primetime editions of MLB “Sunday Night Baseball” on NBC averaged 2.7 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics, marking the largest audience for the series — which previously aired on ESPN — since 2007.
Note that only the Sunday night games on NBC are Nielsen-rated. Games that air solely on Peacock and NBCSN — spanning the early months of the season and resuming this weekend — have not been rated. That means Sunday night games during the most competitive portions of the MLB season, during the NBA and NHL playoffs and again during the NFL season, are not included in the average.
By contrast, all of ESPN’s Sunday night games were rated, including some that aired directly opposite playoff Game 7s and NFL “Sunday Night Football.”
Five of NBC’s 14 games topped the three million viewer mark, including the three most-watched games of the season in Yankees-Red Sox (3.96M), Dodgers-Yankees (3.94M) and Red Sox-Dodgers (3.80M).
NBC’s Sunday night package ranks as the most-watched of the MLB season, surpassing the 2.44 million watching the Saturday regional windows on FOX. It should be noted that FOX in a press release this week said that it has the most-watched MLB regular season package. It is not clear whether FOX is comparing its audience to NBC’s Nielsen-only average, or comparing viewership for both networks across all windows, afternoon or primetime.
Unlike the other networks, NBC only uses Nielsen to track viewership on linear television, not its streaming platforms, which are measured by Adobe Analytics. The network’s position has been that its combined Nielsen + Adobe figures are equivalent to the Nielsen-only numbers of other networks, which include streaming.
Nielsen, as Fox researcher Michael Mulvihill publicized last week, recently told clients that “[m]ixing internal or third-party data with Nielsen metrics to make comparative statements in the press is not permissible.” NBC has not generally compared its viewership to other networks in its press statements, but most media reports — including those on this site — regularly compare the combined NBC figure to the Nielsen-only figures for other networks.
The final Sunday night game on NBC this season, Reds-Cubs last weekend, averaged 2.8 million — up from 1.7 million for Braves-Phillies on ESPN last year, which aired opposite college football Labor Day weekend games. NBC also averaged 1.5 million for an Astros-Mets matinee.
While NBC has no more Sunday night games this MLB season, it still has two more regular season telecasts this coming holiday weekend, with a Braves-Phillies matinee on Sunday and Cardinals-Giants in primetime on Labor Day. Those will be its final windows before the MLB Wild Card Series at the end of the month.
As for the other networks, FOX on Saturday averaged 3.16 million for regional action featuring Yankees-Red Sox, marking its second-largest audience of the season behind a Fourth of July regional window following the FIFA World Cup. FOX has aired its second, third and fourth-most watched games of the season in consecutive weeks.
