MLB sees double-digit viewership increases in US and Japan
ESPN's coverage is up 22%, averaging 1.74 million viewers. It is the most-watched season on ESPN through the first two months since 2017.
This might be the last year ESPN is carrying baseball after it opted out of its rights deal in February.
The MLB Tuesday package on TBS has a 16% increase. Fox Sports is up 10%, averaging 1.84 million viewers per game.
Last Saturday night's 18-2 rout by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the New York Yankees averaged 2.2 million on Fox.
The MLB.TV streaming package has seen its viewers increase 27%, with more than 7.5 billion minutes watched through Monday.
Games on the NHK channels in Japan are averaging 2.7 million. The average does not include the Tokyo Series games between the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs which began the regular season.
The ratings are on pace for MLB's most-watched regular season in Japan as the audience has increased every year since 2021.
On MLB.TV, streaming viewership has increased 27% vs 2024, which was the most-watched season in the history of the service. For games through Monday, June 2, MLB.TV has more than 7.5 billion minutes watched this season.
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Eight miles to the south, the White Sox annually updated their ballpark — which opened in 1991 — at taxpayer expense through the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority while Ricketts had to fight for approval to spend his own money for improvements to Wrigley. Ricketts said in a 2020 interview his ownership group had spent about $740 million on ballpark renovations, which had originally been projected at $500 million. 'No one could have known in advance the level of the issues we were going to find,' Ricketts told the Athletic's Patrick Mooney and other beat writers. 'We were also very much in the mindset of: 'Let's measure twice, cut once. Let's do it right.' We intend to own the team for the next generation or two. We want to make sure that the person that follows me in this chair doesn't have to worry about the same problems that we had to deal with. So we spent all the money to make sure Wrigley Field was not only an improvement for the fans but something that's structurally viable for the next hundred years.' While fans were frustrated with a lull in spending for player payrolls after the run to the 2016 World Series, Ricketts denied stadium expenses impacted the baseball budget. 'We financed (renovations),' he said. 'One of the things we did was we sold pieces of the team. We paid for it by selling off assets, selling off equity in the team. That effectively covered the expenses that we didn't anticipate — that we could not have anticipated — early on.' While heavily investing in the rooftop buildings beyond the outfield walls at Wrigley, Ricketts made a point of getting improvements outside the ballpark. Initially that meant better lighting and sidewalks for security but will soon include the installation of security bollards along the streets that ring the stadium. A public-private funding measure passed in June that will allocate an estimated $32 million for security measures. That was the final hurdle the Cubs had to clear before MLB allowed them to host an All-Star Game. Because baseball's collective bargaining agreement ends in 2026, there's fear of an extended player lockout leading into the '27 season, however. Ricketts understands that as well as anyone, of course, but for the moment let him enjoy a feeling of accomplishment for not only preserving but improving Wrigley Field. He deserves it.
