The New York Mets’ win against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card Series finale became ESPN’s highest-rated game in three years

Pete Alonso reacts after hitting a home run in the 9th inning

The New York Mets’ 4-2 comeback win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night in the final game of the NL Wild Card Series had an average of 4,017,000 viewers on ESPN and streaming. This made it ESPN’s most-watched Major League Baseball game in three years.

On Friday, ESPN and Nielsen reported that the audience peaked at 5.75 million viewers during the ninth inning when the Mets came back from a 2-0 deficit to advance to the divisional round for the first time since 2015, when they made it to the World Series.

Pete Alonso
Pete Alonso (MLB)

This was the largest audience for a playoff game on ESPN since the 2021 AL wild-card game, where the Boston Red Sox’s victory over the New York Yankees averaged 7.7 million viewers.

This year, the nine MLB Wild Card Series games averaged 2.82 million viewers on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, showing a 25% increase compared to last year and a 1% gain from 2022.