Major League Baseball (MLB) is winning the ratings game so far in 2026. Through the first weekend in May, MLB’s national viewership is up 44% — the league’s best early-season mark since 2017.
What We Know: MLB is averaging 2.28 million viewers per game across ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, and Netflix. Furthermore, FOX is up 40% for its Saturday coverage alone. Both Netflix and NBC set Opening Day viewership records in their first season as MLB rights holders. Notably, Nielsen’s expanded Big Data + Panel measurement system — introduced for live programming in September of 2025 — is also factoring into the audience totals.
What The Numbers Show: (Viewership figures for key MLB national broadcasts MLB opening weekend)
| Network | Average Viewership | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix Opening Night Broadcast (Yankees vs Giants) | 2.97 million viewers | Largest Opening Night audience since 2020 (Yankees vs Nationals: 4.01 million viewers) |
| NBC Opening Day Broadcast (Pirates vs Mets) | 2.3 million viewers | — |
| NBC Opening Day Broadcast (Diamondbacks vs Dodgers) | 3.2 million viewers | NBC earned the largest MLB Opening Day audience on record for a multi-game presentation on a single network |
| FOX Sports Opening Weekend (Royals vs Braves) + FOX Sports Opening Weekend (Yankees vs Giants) | 2.59 million viewers | Combined viewership up 45% from comparable weekend last year; best MLB season-opening telecast since 2021 |
What Remains Unclear: It’s still early, and sustaining these gains across a full 162-game season remains an open question. Additionally, separating organic audience growth from the Nielsen measurement upgrade is difficult. Whether all these networks can maintain its momentum beyond the first month of the regular season will be a key storyline to track.
What It Means: With nearly every professional and collegiate sports seeing gains in viewership, it’s truly difficult to tell what’s real and what’s inflated because of measurement upgrades. Leagues are continuing to see gains which is a short-term win for all. However, would be interesting to see how viewership is a year from now to see if it was the measurement or the interest in the sport. This provides a nice runway for MLB to market themselves to new advertisers and continue growing reach both in scale and digital ahead of a potential lockout coming this winter.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
