Unprecedented drama in the MLB All-Star Game was not enough to produce a bump in event viewership.
Fox Sports said late Wednesday that the event from Truist Park drew an average of 7.2 million viewers. The figure is down 3% from last year’s 7.4 million, and nears the game’s record-low of just over 7 million two years ago.
Despite the drop, though, the figure reaffirmed the MLB All-Star Game as the most-watched event of this type in North American pro sports, and represented the network’s most-watched telecast of any type since the historic total in February for Super Bowl LIX.
This year’s event featured the first home-run swing-off tiebreaker to determine the winner after the American and National Leagues were tied at six runs each after nine innings. The unique format, created by MLB and the MLB Players Association in early 2022 but not needed until this year, was designed to avoid player injury and overuse during what remains an exhibition game.
Instead of widely rebuked situations like the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee that ended in a tie or the one six years later at the former Yankee Stadium that painfully stretched for 15 innings, viewers were instead treated to a large dose of finality and spectacle. Thanks in large part to the heroics of the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, who hit three homers in the swing-off to win the game’s Most Valuable Player honors, the National League prevailed.
More importantly, though, fans, players, and coaches alike raved about the swing-off format after its debut.
“That was like the baseball version of a shootout or extra time,” Schwarber said. “It was really fun. I credit the guys, too, who were really into it. They were cheering along. The fans were into it. … I think it’s a good idea.”
Viewership of the game, however, peaked between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. ET, more than two hours before the swing-off happened.
Swings of the Future
While other elements used during the game, such as the automated ball-strike system, will make their way to MLB games that count, the swing-off almost certainly won’t, at least in the near term. More chatter about the swing-off, however, is all but certain.
“It will be interesting to see where that goes,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who led the AL squad this year. “There’s probably a world where you could see that in the future, where maybe it’s in some regular-season mix. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if people start talking about it like that. Obviously, I don’t think that should happen, necessarily, or would at any time in the near future. But I’ve got to say, it was pretty exciting.”
In the case of Tuesday night, though, both Boone and NL counterpart Dave Roberts veered their choices for swing-off participants for All-Star Game reserves who were still warm—as opposed to starters either long out of the game, those who had left the ballpark entirely, or both.
The viewership dip for Tuesday’s All-Star Game follows a 5% lift ESPN saw for the MLB Home Run Derby held on the previous night.
