A glut of Yankees-Red Sox games delivered across-the-board increases on all four MLB broadcasters.
Yankees-Red Sox delivered a 1.6 final rating and 2.5 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up 14% in ratings and 19% in viewership from the same matchup last year (1.4, 2.1M) and the most-watched MLB telecast on cable since Opening Night.
The Red Sox’ win edged the previous second-place game, Cubs-Red Sox in April (2.46M to 2.45M).
All four games of the teams’ weekend series were nationally televised on four different networks. Earlier in the day, the matchup had a 0.34 rating (+6%) and 504,000 viewers (+15%) on TBS. Saturday’s game had a 0.45 (+22%) and 635,000 (+27%) on Fox Sports 1. Friday’s game scored 409,000 on MLB Network (+16%).
Except for the TBS game, each comparable window last year also featured Yankees-Red Sox.
The teams did not fare quite as well when separate. ESPN scored 671,000 viewers for Monday’s Blue Jays-Red Sox game and 605,000 for Yankees-Twins on Tuesday — down 22% and 10%, respectively, from a pair of Mets-Cubs games last year (857K, 669K).
In a testament to Yankees-Red Sox domination, one of the weekend’s only nationally televised games involving neither team — Rangers-Royals on FS1 Saturday night — was preempted by the rivals’ extra-inning marathon. It was Astros-Cardinals Game 5 redux.
