ESPN Gets 15-Year Viewership High from Yankees-Mets

A walk-off thriller between in-city rivals at the top of their respective divisions was apparently enough to draw in a milestone baseball viewing audience for ESPN.

The Mets 3-2 win over the Yankees on Wednesday was watched by an average of 2.1 million people — peaking at 2.8 million in the 10:15-10:30 p.m. ET block.

Excluding opening night and tiebreaker games, that represents the largest audience for a regular-season MLB weeknight broadcast on ESPN since the Yankees played the Red Sox on Sept. 14, 2007 — nearly 15 years ago.

As part of its new long-term deal with MLB, the Worldwide Leader was allotted five exclusive, national games this season in addition to its regular 25 “Sunday Night Baseball” games. This game was presumably part of that.

The two-game Subway Series earlier this week was the first time in the history of the matchup that each team had sole possession of first place in its respective division. This campaign also marked the first time in MLB history that the Yankees and Mets were the first two teams to 40 wins in a season.

The league will want more matchups like that if it’s going to keep pace in TV ratings: Last week’s All-Star Game saw record-low viewership.