MLB Television Ratings Showing Double-Digit Growth In 2025

[Brock Beauchamp]

In a recent roundup on MLB.com, early results on MLB television ratings were revealed. They include:

• MLB on Fox is up 10%
• MLB on ESPN is up 22%
• MLB Tuesday on TBS is up 16%

Perhaps most importantly, it appears substantial gains are being made in the 18-34 age demographic, a decades-long weakness of Major League Baseball.

This is in sharp contrast to the World Series, which has been in decline for years and is often used as a benchmark for the overall popularity of the sport. I was able to find World Series ratings dating back to 1968, and until 2007 the World Series never carried a rating under 10. That slowly spiraled until it hit its low-water mark of 4.7 in 2023 as the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks squared off.

MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred have aggressively pushed rules changes, largely in an attempt to capture younger demographics that have abandoned baseball in favor of football and basketball.

Is baseball on the rebound with fans or is this just a blip on the radar?

View full rumor

[Possumlad]

Great news!

While some other changes helped (eg. three-batter min for relief pitchers), I think it's hard to overstate the impact of pitch clock on the watchability & likability of the MLB product. ESPECIALLY on TV. A brilliant & needed move, and took some guts. Funny to think back to all the nonsensical hand-wringing by players who couldn't see they were playing a dying game.

Games are ~30 minutes shorter now than they were in 2022. And it matters most for the casual / distracted fan... Sure, us diehards could grind through a mid-summer 3 hour snoozer. But even my wife can make it through 3-4 innings on TV now. And our 10 year old is now obsessed w/ watching the Twins! 

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

15 minutes ago, Possumlad said:

Great news!

While some other changes helped (eg. three-batter min for relief pitchers), I think it's hard to overstate the impact of pitch clock on the watchability & likability of the MLB product. ESPECIALLY on TV. A brilliant & needed move, and took some guts. Funny to think back to all the nonsensical hand-wringing by players who couldn't see they were playing a dying game.

Games are ~30 minutes shorter now than they were in 2022. And it matters most for the casual / distracted fan... Sure, us diehards could grind through a mid-summer 3 hour snoozer. But even my wife can make it through 3-4 innings on TV now. And our 10 year old is now obsessed w/ watching the Twins! 

I literally cannot understand why any fan has anything but glowing things to say about the pitch clock.

The pandemic is what completely flipped me over to demanding a pitch clock. With no baseball and very little to do, I ended up watching several old games on YouTube. It took me about five innings to realize what was different and it was the fact that guys didn't stand around, ****ing with their batting gloves for 20 seconds between literally. every. single. ****ing. pitch.

From then on, it was incredibly easy to identify the most impactful and easiest change for baseball.

[Possumlad]

9 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I literally cannot understand why any fan has anything but glowing things to say about the pitch clock.

The pandemic is what completely flipped me over to demanding a pitch clock. With no baseball and very little to do, I ended up watching several old games on YouTube. It took me about five innings to realize what was different and it was the fact that guys didn't stand around, ****ing with their batting gloves for 20 seconds between literally. every. single. ****ing. pitch.

From then on, it was incredibly easy to identify the most impactful and easiest change for baseball.

100% Agree. I love the visual below from the Ringer. We're back to game times we last saw in the early 80s!

[Vanimal46]

I’m most surprised about the 22% increase on ESPN. Especially when they plan on dumping that content after the season concludes. 

Any ground gained with the 18-34 demographic is huge. I’ve got to imagine media outlets like Jomboy contributes to that growth. 

Manfred might end up as one of the best commissioners ever if he can navigate the sport through this TV transition and the upcoming CBA negotiations. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I’m most surprised about the 22% increase on ESPN. Especially when they plan on dumping that content after the season concludes. 

I think the ESPN decision is partially declining ratings, partially belt tightening.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if MLB is back on ESPN in 2026 at a slightly reduced rate.

[twinstalker]

This seems fishy

[Twodogs]

48 minutes ago, Possumlad said:

100% Agree. I love the visual below from the Ringer. We're back to game times we last saw in the early 80s!

I've wondered, what was going on in the 70's and 80's that kept game times down?  I mean they didn't add a runner to 2nd in extra innings either.  Don't get me wrong, once in awhile a game got really long, but by looking at the averages they were moving along?  I mean could TV itself have slowed the game down with advertising and such, were the Umps just tougher on the players?  IDK, I'm just throwing ideas out there since at one point in time the game moved along, why they weren't able to keep that pace is what I'm trying to figure out.

[The Great Hambino]

30 minutes ago, Twodogs said:

I've wondered, what was going on in the 70's and 80's that kept game times down?  I mean they didn't add a runner to 2nd in extra innings either.  Don't get me wrong, once in awhile a game got really long, but by looking at the averages they were moving along?  I mean could TV itself have slowed the game down with advertising and such, were the Umps just tougher on the players?  IDK, I'm just throwing ideas out there since at one point in time the game moved along, why they weren't able to keep that pace is what I'm trying to figure out.

Someone in the 80's could've asked the same question - why the game was taking so much longer than it did in the 30s and 40s.

The chart above roughly correlates with the number of pitchers used per game - like game length, it has steadily increased (with a more rapid incline up until the recent addition of the 3 batter rule) going back a century plus.  My theory:  more pitchers used means shorter outings, which means increased velocity, which means more time taken between pitches.  Also, more pitching changes add to game length

I think you make a good point about the introduction of TV increasing game length.  My guess is the jumps in recent decades correlates with the percentage of games being broadcast.

As I nerd out on this chart, I'm more interested in things that have caused drops in the length of games.  Apparently expansion and world war (and a crackdown on PEDs maybe in the early 2000s? I don't have a good theory for that one) drop game length.  Also, what caused it to skyrocket between 1945 and 1960?

[DJL44]

30 minutes ago, The Great Hambino said:

what caused it to skyrocket between 1945 and 1960?

Broadcasting on television

[The Great Hambino]

26 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Broadcasting on television

How many games were actually on TV at the time though?  A game of the week with local blackouts plus the World Series?  Not sure I buy that adding over half an hour to the average game time

[Twodogs]

On 6/4/2025 at 9:35 AM, The Great Hambino said:

Someone in the 80's could've asked the same question - why the game was taking so much longer than it did in the 30s and 40s.

The chart above roughly correlates with the number of pitchers used per game - like game length, it has steadily increased (with a more rapid incline up until the recent addition of the 3 batter rule) going back a century plus.  My theory:  more pitchers used means shorter outings, which means increased velocity, which means more time taken between pitches.  Also, more pitching changes add to game length

I think you make a good point about the introduction of TV increasing game length.  My guess is the jumps in recent decades correlates with the percentage of games being broadcast.

As I nerd out on this chart, I'm more interested in things that have caused drops in the length of games.  Apparently expansion and world war (and a crackdown on PEDs maybe in the early 2000s? I don't have a good theory for that one) drop game length.  Also, what caused it to skyrocket between 1945 and 1960?

After reading your response I started thinking also.  I read the Yankees averaged 3 hours per game in 88.  Then I thought to myself, hey both leagues added the DH like 5 - 6 years ago.  I wonder what game time differences were between the American League and the National League before the National League got the DH?  

Very interesting the increase in time between 1945 and 1960.  Biggest increase over a time period ever.  

So looks like from what you've observed is the Royals winning the world series in the way that they did was probably the undoing of quick paced games.  

Maybe teams should lose the DH when they pull their starter out? Might keep pitchers in another inning or two?  

[IndianaTwin]

On 6/4/2025 at 10:45 AM, Brock Beauchamp said:

I literally cannot understand why any fan has anything but glowing things to say about the pitch clock.

The pandemic is what completely flipped me over to demanding a pitch clock. With no baseball and very little to do, I ended up watching several old games on YouTube. It took me about five innings to realize what was different and it was the fact that guys didn't stand around, ****ing with their batting gloves for 20 seconds between literally. every. single. ****ing. pitch.

From then on, it was incredibly easy to identify the most impactful and easiest change for baseball.

Agree on the time clock, including having a similar experience with watching some old games a few years ago. Like Possumlad, I'm finding that wife is able to tolerate multiple innings. 

Speaking of rule changes, are these time stats counting all games or just those with nine innings? I still greatly dislike the Manfred Man rules, but it has clearly had an effect on the length of extra inning games. I miss the fluky things that came into play with the occasional really long game, even the effect that it had on future games because of bullpen deletion. If they truly needed the Manfred Man, I could have tolerated playing, say, two more "normal" innings before going that route. Holding a team scoreless in the top of the inning and then winning with a walkoff bloop single or a wild pitch (which wouldn't have been a wild pitch with no one on base) and a sac fly is about as anticlimactic as it gets. 

[Parfigliano]

On 6/4/2025 at 9:17 AM, Brock Beauchamp said:

I think the ESPN decision is partially declining ratings, partially belt tightening.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if MLB is back on ESPN in 2026 at a slightly reduced rate.

Highly reduced rate