• by Wayne Friedman , 10 hours ago

National TV viewership of Major League Baseball through the halfway point of the season has seen a sharp overall hike — especially for NBCUniversal and for Fox Television Network.

NBC with its new “Sunday Night Baseball” deal has spiked 51% to 2.5 million Nielsen-measured average viewers, with games airing on NBC Television Network and Peacock from March 26 through July 12.

The league’s midseason mark was its All-Star Break weekend from July 13-16. A year ago, the exclusive Sunday package of games aired on ESPN, where it was averaging 1.66 million viewers.

NBC/Peacock scored the highest-rated game of the year so far -- the Yankees versus the Red Sox, with 4.0 million viewers, on June 28.

Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” telecast through the halfway point is up 10% to 2.25 million average viewers. The strongest results were two July 4 games — the Mets vs. the Braves and the Cardinals vs. the Cubs — averaging 3.34 million viewers.

Fox also scored big with the "2026 MLB All-Star Game," with 8.7 million viewers. It was the most-watched All Star Game since 2018.

For its part, ESPN has dropped 32% to averaging 1.12 million viewers, due to its shift from Sunday night exclusive games to airing weekday non-exclusive games this season.

Warner Bros. Discovery TBS and truTV networks are 21% higher to 466,000 average viewers.