Yankees vs. Red Sox gives ESPN its largest baseball audience this century
Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees is tagged out by Kevin Plawecki #25 of the Boston Red Sox during the sixth inning of the American League Wild Card game at Fenway Park on October 05, 2021. Credit: Getty Images/Maddie Meyer
Nothing in baseball delivers television ratings quite like Yankees-Red Sox games, and Tuesday night was no exception.
The Red Sox’s 6-2 victory over the Yankees in the American League wild-card game averaged 7.7 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2, the largest audience for any major league game on ESPN platforms since 1998, according to the network.
It was the second-most-viewed wild-card game on record in the current format, which dates to 2012, behind only a TBS game between the Cubs and Pirates in 2015 (at 8.3 million), according to Sports Business Journal.
ESPN said it also was the most-streamed MLB event in its history, with 73.6 million minutes consumed digitally.
The game averaged 19.8% of homes in the Boston market and 11.2% in the New York area.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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