MLB viewership up 44 percent across national games in 2026, the league's best showing in nearly a decade

After a few years out of the limelight, baseball is making a comeback. Viewership is up in a major way across the sport, with national games seeing as much as a 44 percent increase in viewers , according to Front Office Sports. Nationally-televised broadcasts — games aired exclusively on ESPN, Fox, NBC Sports, and Netflix — are reportedly averaging 2.

28 million viewers, a staggering increase over last season and MLB’s best mark in viewership since 2017, per FOS. In addition to overall viewership being up, both Netflix and NBC saw record-breaking figures during their Opening Day broadcasts and FOX has seen a massive upswing — as much as 40 percent — on Saturday coverage. The news comes at a fantastic time for MLB, which saw the league and ESPN opt out of a previous agreement in favor of a new broadcasting deal.

MLB eventually re-upped with ESPN and also signed deals with Netflix and NBC. That’s proved to be a lucrative decision thus far. Sports-viewership ratings are generally up across the board, which could be a sign of increased interest in MLB and sports on a more general level.

It also could be the result of a new ratings measurement by Neilson, called Big Data + Panel. The new measurement, which was approved in January of 2025, combines data acquired from various cable providers and streaming services and combines it with Nielson's usual panel system — where the company uses a smaller group of individuals to represent a larger group of people. The NBA, NHL and Kentucky Derby have seen similar viewership spikes in recent weeks, possibly due to that change.