Record eyeballs-grabbing 2024 MLB season

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The 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) (US) season recorded increases in attendance, viewership, streaming, and fan engagement in its second season of new rules which have shortened the games, removed dead time, helped showcase the athleticism of the players, and created more action on the bases.

‘mlb.com’ stated that the average time of game in 2024 was 2:36, the crispest average in 40 years (1984, 2:35). The stolen bases also increased to 3,617, the most in 109 years (1915) and the third most in any Major League season since 1900, behind 1914 (4,574) and 1915 (4,108).

New York (US)-based the Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada. One of the big four major leagues, the MLB comprises 30 teams divided equally between the National League and the American League with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada.

‘mlb.com’ quoted the Commissioner of MLB Robert D. Manfred, Jr. as stating, “The increased enthusiasm the baseball fans of all ages have shown the last two seasons is evident in all of the ways we track fan engagement. Building off last year’s momentum, the 2024 season was memorable with historic performances, emerging young stars, a series of successful special events, and tight pennant races. We thank all the fans for their outstanding support and look forward to an exciting Postseason.”
 

Attendance

The 2024 MLB season recorded the largest attendance in seven years (2017) with a total of 71,348,366, a +one percent increase over last year’s total. The growth marks the first time the MLB attendance has registered back-to-back attendance gains in 12 years (since 2011-2012). Since the institution of the new rules, attendance has grown by nearly 6.8 million marking a +11 percent increase since 2022.

The shorter game times have driven increases in weekday attendance allowing the fans to get home earlier on traditional work and school nights. The weekday average attendance has increased by +13 percent since the 2022 season prior to the institution of the new rules. Twenty-four Clubs (80 percent) have increased their average attendance since the adoption of the new rules. A highlight of the season took place the weekend of June 14^th-16^th when the MLB drew its best-attended weekend in 16 years (August 2008) for both total attendance (1,688,731) and average attendance (37,527). In addition, the MLB recorded its highest attendance in September in 13 years (2011).
 

Television Viewership

The Major League Baseball’s (MLB’s) national television partners enjoyed a successful season with increases in television viewership and younger fans. The MLB’s national television partners registered double digit growth in the Adult 18-34 category including ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (+12 percent), FS1 (+24 percent) and MLB Network (+36 percent). In addition, FOX registered a +9 percent increase in the 18-34 demo.

The ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball finished the season with its most-watched season in five years (2019) with an average audience of 1,505,000 viewers, a +6 percent increase over last year. FOX’s audience was consistent with last year’s average as the network attracted an average of 1,879,000 up slightly from last year’s 1,875,000. Meanwhile, the MLB games on FS1 have increased +9 percent. With an average audience of 375,000, the MLB on TBS early primetime games increased viewership +2 percent versus last season.

The viewership for the MLB Network Showcase games increased +11 percent versus last year with an average of 231,000. The MLB Network’s games are not shown in the home market of the participating clubs. The MLB Network’s coverage of Jackson Holliday’s (baseball infielder for the Baltimore Orioles) Major League debut on April 10^th averaged 626,000 viewers making it the second most-watched regular season game ever on the Network. The MLB Network’s studio shows also registered significant gains this year including the MLB Central: +nine percent, High Heat: +14 percent, MLB Now: +nine percent, Intentional Talk: +23 percent, MLB Tonight: Batting Practice: +13 percent, and Big Inning: +seven percent.

Despite challenges to the regional sports network system impacting numerous sports, the MLB games distributed locally continue to perform exceedingly well versus its competition in their respective markets. The ratings for the MLB games in primetime rank first locally on cable in 20 of the 25 (80 percent) United States (US) markets that host the MLB clubs. The ratings for the MLB games in primetime rank first locally on all networks in 14 of the 25 (56 percent) US markets that host the MLB clubs.
 

Streaming Audience

The MLB.TV set a new high of 14.5 billion minutes watched, a jump of +14 percent over last year’s previous high mark of 12.7 billion minutes watched. The 28 most-watched days in MLB.TV history have occurred in the last two seasons since the implementation of the new rules with 19 of those days taking place in 2024. In addition, seven of the 10 most-watched days ever on MLB.TV have occurred during the 2024 season.

Four of the nine most-watched games occurred in 2024 including the New York Yankees vs. the Houston Astros Opening Day matchup, which was the top game in the history of the 22-year out-of-market streaming service. The September 30th thrilling 8-7 New York Mets win, which was capped by a ninth inning home run by Francisco Lindor (Puerto Rican professional baseball shortstop) and clinched a Postseason berth for New York, ranks as the fifth most-watched game in the history of MLB.TV. The debut of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (American professional baseball pitcher) ranks as the sixth most-watched game in the streaming service’s history.
 

Younger Audience

In addition to registering double digit increases on its national TV audiences in the 18-34 categories, the younger fans are increasingly engaging in baseball in other ways:

• The percentage of ticket buyers’ ages 18-35 has jumped +8.5 percent in the last five years (since 2019);
• The median age of ticket purchasers has decreased five years since 2019, from 51 to 46;
• The average age of newly created accounts in the MLB’s fan database has decreased by more than seven years since 2019 from 43.4 to 36.2. These are people who have at least one digital engagement over the past year which includes watching an MLB.TV stream, ticket purchase/scan and MLB Shop purchases;
• According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), baseball participation is at nearly 16.7 million in the United States, the highest officially recorded level since the SFIA’s survey of more than 120 sports began in 2008;
  • Casual participation in baseball is at more than 8.9 million participants – also an all-time high and an increase of +108 percent since the launch of MLB’s PLAY BALL program (the MLB Network’s weekly half-hour program designed to educate the young fans about the great game of baseball);
  • Baseball has the highest participation numbers among boys ages 6-12; and
  • Baseball and softball, combined, also had the highest participation among boys and girls ages 6-12.

 
Silver Spring (US)-based the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), the trade association of leading industry sports and fitness brands, enhances industry vitality and fosters sports and fitness participation through research, thought leadership, product promotion, and public policy.
 

Digital Audience

The MLB social media platforms all registered double digit growth over the previous season including Instagram (+28 percent), X (formerly Twitter) (+69 percent), Facebook (+17 percent), and YouTube (+33 percent). In the 24 hours surrounding Shohei Ohtani (Japanese professional baseball pitcher and designated hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers) entering the 50/50 club (the players who have achieved 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one season), the MLB posts generated 98.4 million impressions on X alone.

September 19^th represented the MLB’s biggest day in its Twitter/X history and included the account’s top two posts of all-time focused around Ohtani’s 50/50 accomplishment and his 6-for-6 performance in the same game.
 

International Viewership

The MLB’s international viewership increased during a season where the league played regular season games in South Korea, Mexico City (Mexico) and London (UK). The global viewership has increased +18 percent versus last season with double digit growth in Asia (+32 percent) and Latin America (+16 percent). With the outstanding play of Shohei Ohtani, Shōta Imanaga (Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers) generating excitement, the NHK (Japanese public broadcaster) in Japan is on pace to register its fourth-straight viewership gain (since 2021) with an average audience of nearly 2.2 million viewers.

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