Playing another down-to-the-wire thriller, the Mets attracted another strong audience on ESPN Thursday night.
Thursday’s Mets-Brewers National League Wild Card Series Game 3 averaged 4.02 million viewers on ESPN, up 1% from the only other winner-take-all Game 3 in the current Wild Card format, Padres-Mets on a Sunday night in 2022 (3.96M).
The Mets’ thrilling win, which peaked with 5.75 million viewers in the 9:45 PM ET quarter-hour, delivered the largest Wild Card audience since the final year of the single elimination format in 2021 — and the largest audience of any game in a Wild Card Series (2020, 2022-present).
In the Wild Card Series era, the Mets have played in each of the five most-watched games — the final two against Milwaukee this year and all three against San Diego in 2022.
Game 3 delivered the largest audience of the MLB season thus far — not counting All-Star festivities — though it will almost certainly be surpassed in short order by a Division Series stacked with high-profile matchups, including Mets-Phillies.
The full Wild Card round averaged 2.82 million viewers on the ESPN networks, up 25% from last year and up 1% from two years ago, when the games took place over a Friday-Sunday weekend. Seven of the nine windows increased over last year, with the lone exceptions being a Royals-Orioles day game on ESPN2 and Braves-Padres opposite a political debate.
2024 MLB Wild Card Series viewership
