Major League Baseball’s return to national coverage on NBC and Peacock delivered a strong start, as Opening Day viewership reached multiple milestones across a two-game slate.
The March 26 doubleheader averaged 2.7 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The audience marked the largest Opening Day viewership on record for a multi-game MLB presentation carried by a single network, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics data.
NBC’s afternoon broadcast featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets set the tone early. The game averaged 2.3 million viewers across both platforms. That figure stands as the most-watched Opening Day afternoon game on record.
Later in the evening, the Arizona Diamondbacks faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in primetime. The broadcast opened with a World Series banner ceremony at Dodger Stadium, celebrating Los Angeles’ 2025 championship season. The moment helped drive the game to an average audience of 3.2 million viewers.
As a result, the primetime matchup became the most-watched Opening Day night game since 2017, excluding the pandemic-affected 2020 season. It also delivered the largest Thursday MLB audience on record during the first half of the season.
Notably, the strong performance came despite heavy competition across the sports landscape that evening. Even with multiple events airing simultaneously, MLB’s return to NBC and Peacock drew significant national interest.
Looking ahead, NBC and Peacock will continue their MLB coverage with another high-profile matchup. Sunday Night Baseball returns April 5 at 7 p.m. ET, featuring the St. Louis Cardinals visiting the Detroit Tigers. Both clubs enter the game after winning their opening series. With early momentum established, NBCUniversal now turns its attention to sustaining that audience throughout the season.
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