MLB Wild Card Series up 16 percent through two days

The following article " MLB Wild Card Series up 16 percent through two days " originally appeared on Sports Media Watch .

The Mets’ return to the postseason has thus far paid off in the ratings for ESPN.

The Major League Baseball Wild Card round is averaging 2.62 million viewers across ESPN/ABC through Wednesday (eight games), up 16% from the same point last year.

Wednesday’s primetime Mets-Brewers Game 2 averaged 3.70 million on ESPN, up 14% from Marlins-Phillies last year (3.24M) and the most-watched game of the MLB season thus far (not counting All-Star festivities). Milwaukee’s series-tying win delivered the second-largest audience in the three-year history of the Wild Card series, trailing only the deciding Sunday night Padres-Mets Game 3 two years ago (3.96M).

Tuesday’s Game 1 drew 2.61 million in a late afternoon window, up 55% from Blue Jays-Twins a year ago (1.68M).

Outside of the Mets series, the upstart Tigers’ sweep of the Astros was the biggest draw of the Wild Card round. ABC averaged 3.19 million for Game 1 on Tuesday and 3.01 million for Game 2 on Wednesday, up 44 and 35 percent respectively from last year’s comparable Rangers-Rays games (2.21 and 2.24 million).

Game 1 was the network’s most-watched playoff game since it reentered the postseason picture in 2020 (seven telecasts).

Further down the dial, Braves-Padres drew 2.93 million on ESPN Tuesday (-2%) and 2.05 million on ESPN2 Wednesday (+5%). Tuesday’s game overlapped with a political debate that averaged more than 40 million viewers.

Royals-Orioles brought up the rear on both days with 1.20 million on ESPN2 Tuesday (-36%) and 2.34 million on ESPN Wednesday (+15%).

It should be noted that a number of these games have overlapped with each other. On Tuesday, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 combined to average 6.71 million during the 5:30 PM ET quarter-hour, when three games were being played at the same time.

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