With the audience spread across 18 games rather than two, no MLB Wild Card game came close to last year — but the numbers were not bad.
Yankees-Indians was the top draw of the MLB Wild Card round (pending Friday’s results), averaging 2.59 million viewers for Game 1 Tuesday night and 2.54 million for Game 2 on Wednesday. The games aired opposite a presidential debate and Game 1 of the NBA Finals, respectively. [Update: Cardinals-Padres Game 3 finished as the top game of the Wild Card round with 2.60 million viewers.]
The Yankees’ wins averaged fewer viewers than any Wild Card game prior to this season, though that was to be expected given the shift from two winner-take all games to eight best-of-three series. Prior to this year, the least-watched Wild Card Game was the first one — Cardinals-Braves on a Friday afternoon in 2012 (3.99M).
For the year, the Yankees-Indians games rank fourth and fifth among baseball telecasts, with New York in four of the top five. The Yankees-Nationals season opener remains the top draw (4.01M), followed by another Yankees-Nationals game on FOX two nights later (2.79M) and the Giants-Dodgers opening nightcap (2.78M).
Outside of Yankees-Indians, the top Wild Card game was Thursday’s Cardinals-Padres Game 2, which averaged 2.33 million on ESPN. Game 1 of the series averaged 1.23 million on ESPN2 the previous afternoon. Figures for Friday’s deciding Game 3 were not immediately available.
In the only other series to go the distance, White Sox-A’s Game 3 averaged 1.93 million on ESPN Thursday afternoon, up from 1.22 million for the previous day’s Game 2 and 953,000 for Tuesday’s opener.
Elsewhere, ABC’s first MLB playoff game in 25 years — Astros-Twins Game 1 on Tuesday afternoon — averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.20 million viewers. ABC also averaged a 1.1 and 1.54 million for Marlins-Cubs Game 1 on Wednesday. (** ABC’s numbers may be fast-nationals that do not include the out-of-home viewing now included in all Nielsen final nationals. **)
Game 2 of Astros-Twins had just 731,000 on ESPN2 the following day, while figures for Friday’s Marlins-Cubs Game 2 on ABC were not immediately available.
Rounding out the Wild Card action, Brewers-Dodgers Game 2 averaged 1.85 million on ESPN Thursday, up significantly from 1.09 million for a Game 1 that mostly aired on ESPN2; Wednesday’s Reds-Braves Game 1 marathon (1.46M) outpaced the following day’s Game 2 (1.38M); Blue Jays-Rays on TBS brought up the rear with a mere 803,000 for Game 1 Tuesday and an even lower 345,000 for Game 2 Wednesday. The Game 2 audience is the lowest for any MLB playoff game on record.
Last year’s Wild Card games averaged 4.73 and 4.54 million viewers (Brewers-Nationals and Rays-A’s, respectively).
Going back the regular season, last Saturday’s MLB on FOX finale (Phillies-Rays or Brewers-Cardinals) averaged a 0.7 and 1.12 million, marking the least-watched primetime MLB window on broadcast since 2016. TBS averaged 176,000 for Cubs-White Sox last Sunday, up 54% from last year’s finale (Indians-Nationals: 114K).
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 9.30, 10.1, 10.2, ShowBuzz Daily 9.29 a, b]
