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National sports coverage would lead one to believe that Major League Baseball is a distant third in popularity among professional sports in America, behind the NFL and NBA. That is not true.

The NFL is king, obviously. Football surpassed baseball as America’s pastime decades ago. Football is perhaps the last piece of monoculture left in America – football and Taylor Swift, that is.

But the idea that the NBA is more popular than MLB – as shows like First Take, Get Up, and SportsCenter suggest – is hardly supported by data.

Through two games, the 2024 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers is averaging 14.5 million viewers. An NBA Finals series has not averaged 14 million viewers since 2019, when the Warriors-Raptors series reached about 15 million viewers per game.

Sure, MLB is helped by the sexy matchup of the Dodgers and Yankees. Yet in June, the NBA was bolstered by a Finals appearance from the Boston Celtics, one of the league’s most historic and popular franchises, and averaged just 11 million viewers. Game 5, in which Boston closed out Dallas, peaked at 12 million viewers.

Since 2020, the NBA Finals have averaged 10.5 million viewers, while the World Series has averaged 11.36 million. However, MLB’s popularity might be best measured by its regional dominance over the NBA.

“As I wrote a couple years ago, most major cities have MLB teams that significantly outdraw NBA on local TV *per game* — and there are about twice as many games,” Ryan Glasspiegel, sports media reporter for the New York Post, told OutKick on Monday.  “This is also true with attendance. The national media is much more into the NBA but many more fans in the US engage with MLB on a yearly basis.”

Specifically, Glasspiegel at the time reported how MLB tops the NBA viewership in the following local markets via their respective regional sports networks:

Markets with both MLB and NBA

Atlanta
Braves – 3.62
Hawks – .59 (1.09)

Boston
Red Sox – 5.25
Celtics – 2.67 (3.45)

Chicago
White Sox – .95
Cubs – 4.11
Bulls – 1.36 (1.93)

Cleveland
Indians – 6.55
Cavs – 3.32 (2.97)

Dallas
Rangers – 1.17
Mavericks – 1.29 (1.53)

Denver
Rockies – 3.05
Nuggets – 1.4 (n/a)

Detroit
Tigers – 2.4
Pistons – 1.42 (1.3)

Houston
Astros – 4.87
Rockets – 2.31 (2.03)

Los Angeles
Angels – 1.24
Dodgers – 1.76
Clippers – .56 (1.01)
Lakers – 2.33 (3.1)

Miami
Marlins – .83
Heat – 2.32 (2.86)

Minneapolis
Twins – 6.33
Wolves – 2.2 (1.55)

Milwaukee
Brewers – 6.37
Bucks – 3.07 (2.86)

New York
Yankees – 3.02
Mets – 2.27
Nets – .46 (.57)
Knicks – .90 (1.15)

Philadelphia
Phillies – 4.06
Sixers – 2.8 (3.64)

Phoenix
Diamondbacks – 2.18
Suns – .79 (1.24)

San Francisco
A’s – .76
Giants – 2.34
Warriors – 7.5 (3.31)

Washington DC
Nationals – 2.29
Wizards – 1.19 (.56)

But the NBA is stronger nationally during the regular season and thus more valuable to the networks.

It is. However, the NBA’s advantage over MLB nationally is a result of the above: far more fans watch baseball on a local station. Given the volume of MLB games (162 per season), viewers are less likely (and have less time) to watch teams outside their local market, the chief purpose of nationally televised matchups.

Last week, former ESPN host Bomani Jones wondered aloud why MLB doesn’t “capture the zeitgeist” of casual sports fans, like the NBA. We aren’t so sure that is the case.

You walk around cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, etc. and the popularity of MLB is evident, with sports bars and ballparks full of rabid fans donning their team’s caps.

It’s not the fans that have a lack of interest in baseball. It’s the sports media – the talk shows, the websites, the blogs, and the social media accounts. But that says more about the media than the sport of baseball.

As a television executive explained to me a few years ago, the sports media measures the “zeitgeist” by what “clicks” between 8am and 3pm ET when the biggest stars host their shows: Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd, Mike Greenberg, Dan Patrick, Jim Rome, and Pat McAfee. 

Thus, 8am to 3pm is when the sports blogs aggregate the most content, essentially dictating what does and does not go viral.

Here’s the issue: What is of interest between 8am and 3pm is not indicative of sports fans at large. Most people are working during those hours; they are not at home consuming LeBron vs. Jordan debates and reading The Spun.

Morning and daytime sports talk is largely niche. According to ESPN, around 53% of the audience for “First Take” is black and skews young, under 34. Similar measurements can be found for most shows that air during standard work hours.

Hence, sports talk shows focus heavily on the NBA and lightly on MLB.

The NBA, with a median age of 37, is widely popular among young black Americans. MLB, with a median age of 47, is not.

Put simply, baseball’s lack of mainstream sports coverage has more to do with  demographics than popularity. The same can be said about college football, which is far more popular than the NBA, but is discussed a fraction the amount on ESPN and FS1.

And given the lack of financial benefit of debate show coverage, we suspect MLB and college football would not trade places with the NBA if given the chance. The 300,000 viewers who watch sports talk at noon ET aren’t that important.

Baseball is fine, even if Stephen A. and Skip aren’t watching.

In fact, baseball is the hottest it has been since 2017. The showcasing of Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, Juan Soto, and Freddie Freeman in the World Series should only grow the interest in the sport. 

Well, maybe not Aaron Judge based on his World Series performance, thus far…

Baseball is not dead. Baseball is not dying. MLB is the second most popular professional sports league in America. And that isn’t changing anytime soon.