The Major League Baseball Draft drew its second-best audience on record this past Sunday night, eliciting an average of 863,000 viewers across ESPN and MLB Network, up 16% year-over-year. A total of 670,000 viewers watched the Draft on ESPN, while the other 179,000 tuned in on MLB Network. Both entities broadcast live from Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas and combined to peak at 1.095 million viewers. The second half of the draft aired concurrently with the CONMEBOL Copa América 2024 final between Argentina and Colombia, which attained more than 6 million viewers on FOX.
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández won the 2024 T-Mobile Home Run Derby in a dramatic finish against Baltimore Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson; however, the event experienced a decline in viewership. The event averaged 5.45 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, which is down 11% from the previous year. Moreover, the outcome represents the smallest average audience for the event in a decade.
The Home Run Derby aired at the same time as the first night of the Republican National Convention, which averaged 18.1 million viewers across broadcast and cable networks on its first night. Although it drew more viewers than skills events in other sports, such as the most recent NBA All-Star Saturday Night, viewership for the Home Run Derby declined by 10.8% year-over-year. Viewership for MLB on ESPN games has averaged 1.59 million viewers through the first half of the season, which is up 6% year-over-year, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.
For the rest of the early stages of All-Star events, MLB Network secured 133,000 viewers for the Futures Game, which aired against eight MLB regular-season games taking place in the same window. MLB Network averaged 60,000 viewers on Friday for the second HBCU Swingman Classic game, a contest that featured the top 50 college baseball players from Division I Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
