MLB All-Star Game ratings hit a record-low for the third time in four years.
The 2019 MLB All-Star Game averaged a 5.0 rating and 8.14 million viewers on FOX Tuesday night, down 4% in ratings and 6% in viewership from last year (5.2, 8.69M) and down 9% and 12% respectively from 2017 (5.5, 9.28M).
Ratings and viewership were the lowest ever for the game, falling below the previous marks set last year. The All-Star Game has now set a record-low in three of the past four years.
The ten All-Star games this decade rank as the ten lowest rated and least-watched. Prior to this decade, the game had never fallen below an 8.1 and 12.33 million in 2005.
The MLB All-Star Game finished just short of the NFL Pro Bowl, which combined for a 5.1 rating and 8.23 million viewers across ESPN, ABC and DisneyXD in January. This year marked the first time since 2014 that the Pro Bowl had a larger audience than the MLB All-Star Game.
Though behind the Pro Bowl, the MLB All-Star Game did outperform this year’s NBA All-Star Game on TBS and TNT (3.8, 6.80M) and the NHL All-Star Game on NBC (1.1, 1.78M).
Notably, all four of this year’s major sport All-Star games declined from last year. In addition to the record-lows for MLB, the NBA All-Star Game tied a record-low rating and posted its smallest audience since 2010, and the NHL All-Star Game hit three-year lows.
The MLB All-Star Game earned a 1.9 rating in adults 18-49, down 10% from last year (2.1), down 17% from 2017 (2.3), and the lowest since at least 1991. It was no match for the NBA All-Star Game (2.8), Pro Bowl (2.2), or the previous night’s Home Run Derby (2.1). The All-Star Game has now trailed the Derby in the demo two of the past three years.
The game’s 1.3 rating in adults 18-34 (-19%) also trailed the Derby (1.6).
While the Midsummer Classic remains strong by the ever-lower standards of modern All-Star games, it used to be one of the marquee events in all of sports. A quarter-century ago, it averaged a 15.7 rating, 22.02 million viewers, and an 8.6 in adults 18-49. That was the year of the MLB players strike and team owners’ decision to cancel the World Series. The game has never been as big a draw since.
