RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The Los Angeles Dodgers may be the most hated team in baseball, but it hasn’t stopped baseball fans from tuning into their nationally televised games.
Sunday Night Baseball last Sunday between the Boston Red Sox and the Dodgers averaged 3.8 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. Viewership peaked with 4.4 million viewers during the 9:45 p.m. ET quarter-hour.
The viewership marked an impressive streak for Sunday Night Baseball . For the first time ever, Sunday Night Baseball recorded three consecutive games with more than 3 million viewers. The streak saw Dodgers-Yankees on July 19 average 3.9 million viewers and Yankees-Phillies on July 26 average 3.2 million viewers.
Overall, five Sunday Night Baseball games this season have averaged 3 million or more viewers.
The game was the third-most watched MLB game this season. Yankees-Red Sox, which was joined in progress, leads the way with 4.0 million viewers. Dodgers-Yankees two weeks ago averaged 3.9 million viewers. All three aired on Sunday Night Baseball .
Viewership for Red Sox-Dodgers seems much more impressive than Yankees-Red Sox or Dodgers-Yankees, which are almost certainly the two most marquee MLB matchups. The high viewership might have something to do with the Dodgers’ increasing villain status in MLB.
The game was played the day after reports emerged that the Los Angeles Dodgers had acquired two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers. The deal angered many fans worried about the competitive balance of baseball. With the collective bargaining agreement between MLB players and owners expiring this December, a lockout is widely expected.
A lockout may not be a wise business decision because viewership continues to be extremely strong for baseball in 2026. Note that comparisons to previous years are skewed because of Nielsen’s shift in September 2025 to the new Big Data methodology, which generally increases live sports viewership, sometimes by as much as 15%.
The day before Red Sox-Dodgers, Baseball Night in America on Fox, featuring Yankees-Cubs or Guardians-Diamondbacks, averaged 2.83 million viewers . That is the second-most-watched game window on Fox, behind Mets-Braves or Cardinals-Cubs on July 4, which averaged 3.36 million. Overall, games on Fox are averaging 2.31 million viewers so far this year, up 18% from last year’s full-season average.
Overall, Sunday Night Baseball is averaging 2.84 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, up 56% from last year on ESPN. Note that in addition to the Nielsen methodology changes, that comparison is not apples-to-apples because broadcast television generally has a higher viewership ceiling than cable, and NBC’s average also includes Peacock viewership measured by Adobe Analytics.
The one dark spot for MLB is its viewership on ESPN. With a schedule change from Sunday Night Baseball to mostly exclusive weekday games, MLB on ESPN is averaging 1.10 million viewers as of last week. That is down 39% from last year’s slate of games.
So, while a suspected lockout looms over MLB, viewership across broadcast networks continues to be strong.
The post Red Sox-Dodgers draws 3.8 million as ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ sees historic ratings streak appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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