Sports Ratings Tracker

Last weekend’s Astros-Padres MLB “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC averaged a combined 2.1 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.1 rating, 2.01M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up from Cardinals-Cubs on ESPN last year (1.98M), but the least-watched Sunday night game since Rangers-Red Sox in June (1.7M).

Viewership trailed the previous night’s regional MLB window on FOX, which averaged a 1.2 and 2.22 million — marking the first time since Fourth of July weekend that FOX has delivered the top MLB audience of a week.

In other action for the week ending last Sunday, ESPN averaged a 0.6 and 1.15 million for Pirates-Brewers on August 5 and a 0.51 and 899,000 for Giants-Rangers two nights earlier.

FOX averaged a 1.4 rating and 3.335 million viewers for regional Major League Baseball coverage last weekend, marking the network’s largest audience of the season and the second-largest across all networks. The high water mark is 4.2 million for a partially preempted Yankees-Red Sox “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC last month, a figure that combines a Nielsen-measured linear audience with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics.

The telecast trails only the aforementioned Yankees-Red Sox game as the most-watched regular season MLB telecast since the original “Field of Dreams” game in 2021.

Coverage had an indirect lead-in from the FIFA World Cup, which boosted the intervening MLB All-Star Selection Show to an unusually-massive 5.90 million.

As for NBC’s “Star-Spangled Sunday” promotion, Padres-Dodgers averaged 2.3 million on “Sunday Night Baseball” across Nielsen (1.1 rating, 2.16M viewers) and Adobe Analytics, and a rain-delayed Mets-Braves drew 1.9 million on “MLB Sunday Leadoff” (1.0, 1.80M per Nielsen, plus Adobe Analytics). ESPN carried two Sunday games on the same weekend last year, averaging 1.71 million for Cardinals-Cubs and 844,000 for Rangers-Padres.

NBCUniversal carried all 15 MLB games last Sunday, with 13 of those airing primarily on Peacock. Figures for those games were unavailable.

The latest edition of NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” (Rangers-Red Sox) averaged 1.7 million viewers on NBC, per a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — the least-watched of the five Nielsen-rated “Sunday Night Baseball” games this season. The previous low was 2.0 million for Padres-Mariners in May.

The Rangers’ win aired directly opposite World Cup matches, the clinching game of the Stanley Cup Final, and the UFC event at the White House.

The latest edition of MLB “Sunday Night Baseball” (Padres-Mariners) averaged a combined 2.0 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (1.0, 1.80M) and Adobe Analytics, down from last year’s higher-profile Yankees-Mets “Subway Series” game on ESPN, which at the time was the most-watched Sunday night game since 2018 (2.5M).

Padres-Mariners was originally scheduled to air on Peacock and NBCSN, but was moved up to NBC when the network ended up without an NBA playoff game.

Viewership slipped from the previous NBC edition of “Sunday Night Baseball,” Guardians-Braves last month — which averaged 2.2 million (1.1 rating, 1.95M viewers per Nielsen). As one might expect, neither “Sunday Night Baseball” game has matched NBC’s Opening Day doubleheader of Diamondbacks-Dodgers at 3.2 million (1.5, 2.74M per Nielsen) and Pirates-Mets at 2.3 million (1.2, 2.06M per Nielsen).

NBC will begin a regular run of “Sunday Night Baseball” coverage a week from Sunday, airing the series on all-but-two weekends through August.

“Sunday Night Baseball” was not the top MLB telecast of last week, as FOX averaged a 1.4 and 2.50 million for regional coverage featuring the Subway Series and the same Padres-Mariners matchup — the network’s second-largest audience of the season and a 31% increase from the same weekend last year (1.91M).