Plenty of viewers tuned in for ESPN’s telecast of the National League Wild Card Game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets Wednesday night. Actually, more people tuned in for the broadcast than any other ESPN MLB Wild Card Game that the network previously carried.
According to Nielsen, the NL Wild Card Game drew a 5.8 overnight rating, surpassing the 5.7 mark that was the previous record high for the AL and NL Wild Card Games last year. The 5.8 rating is also the best ESPN has earned for a MLB telecast in 13 years. The broadcast drew its biggest audience from 11 p.m. ET to 11:15, which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering it was a 0-0 tie between the Giants and Mets and pitcher Madison Bumgarner was throwing another postseason gem.
Perhaps more important for the future and ESPN’s continued viability for those cutting off from cable and satellite providers, along with the prospects of the network’s eventual over-the-top offering, the NL Wild Card Game drew the network’s largest streaming audience for a MLB game.
According to ESPN, the streaming telecast brought in 634,000 unique viewers and an average minute audience of 173,800. Overall, the audience streamed 35,977,000 total minutes on WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app. All of those numbers are records for the network.
As you might expect, the Giants-Mets game was also a huge hit with local audiences. The broadcast drew a 16.0 overnight rating in San Francisco and 15.6 overnight mark in New York. Those are the highest numbers ESPN has earned for a MLB game in those two markets.