The opening slate of regular-season Major League Baseball games on ESPN this past Thursday attained multiyear viewership highs on the broadcast network. Beginning with an interleague matchup between the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees, coverage of the game averaged 1.93 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. Featuring Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer Joe Buck on the call alongside analysts Bill Schroeder and Joe Girardi, the game peaked with 2.23 million viewers, encapsulating the largest Opening Day audience since 2020. Buck, who was the voice of the World Series for 24 years, called his first baseball game on national television since departing FOX Sports to join ESPN after the 2021 MLB season.
As reported by Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the game surpassed audiences for all but five Sunday Night Baseball games last season, four of which included the Yankees. On top of that, the 3 p.m. EST start time of the matchup avoided direct overlap with games taking place in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. The game took place as ESPN and MLB recently agreed to a mutual opt-out in their existing seven-year media rights contract, presumably making this the final season of the MLB on ESPN property.
The second game of the doubleheader featured the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers facing the Detroit Tigers. As the Dodgers attained a one-run victory, the broadcast averaged 1.74 million viewers, representing a 10% year-over-year rise from the comparable game. The matchup peaked with 2.2 million viewers and featured the broadcast team consisting of play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech, analysts Eduardo Pérez and David Cone and reporter Buster Olney. The broadcasters made their way to San Diego later in the week to call the Sunday Night Baseball season debut between the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves.
ESPN is in the midst of its 36th season of MLB coverage and is broadcasting 25 games through its Sunday Night Baseball property during the season. The company is also presenting five additional exclusive games, including the aforementioned Opening Day doubleheader, along with the MLB Wild Card Series and T-Mobile Home Run Derby. ESPN secured its most-watched season of Sunday Night Baseball since 2019 last year with an average of 1.5 million viewers per game.
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