After an incredibly eventful offseason, the MLB season began on Sunday night, and ESPN enjoyed its highest ratings for an Opening Night game since 2010. Naturally, that 2010 game was a wild Yankees-Red Sox affair at Fenway Park following New York’s 2009 World Series win over the Phillies.
The Cardinals-Cubs game on Sunday drew a 2.1 overnight on ESPN2. That’s not only the best Opening Night rating since 2010, but is also a whopping 40% up from the 2013 (Rangers-Astros) and 2014 (Dodgers-Padres) openers, both of which aired on ESPN as opposed to ESPN2.
The game also predictably shined in both St. Louis and Chicago. In St. Louis, the Opening Night contest drew a 17.7 overnight, which is the highest-rated regular season game *ever* in the market on any ESPN network. The game drew a strong 7.6 in Chicago as well, the highest-rated regular season game in the market on any ESPN network in five years.
All in all, it was a solid start to the season for ESPN, and they’re going to look to continue that momentum today with a quadruple header of MLB games. After a strong Postseason, MLB has to be thrilled with a nice beginning to the season.
[ESPN]
Comments are closed.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.