MLB's Strong NBC Debut Further Proves League Is More Popular Than NBA

As the sports world debates whether MLB or the NBA is the No. 2 league in America behind the NFL, early returns from NBC’s new MLB package provide a notable data point.

MLB’s Opening Day doubleheader on NBC averaged 2.7 million viewers last week. The Pirates-Mets game marked the most-watched Opening Day afternoon game on record with 2.3 million viewers. In the evening, Diamondbacks-Dodgers averaged 3.2 million viewers.

For comparison, the NBA is averaging 2.6 million viewers on NBC this season. That puts MLB essentially on par with the NBA on the same network, at least in the early going.

(Getty Images)

Even if MLB’s audience declines over the course of the long regular season, the fact that its Opening Day numbers are competitive with the NBA supports the case that baseball is the preferred sport in America.

The popularity of the two leagues is measured differently. MLB is heavily driven by local market strength, consistently delivering strong regional sports network ratings across a high volume of games. That structure dilutes the importance of national windows during the regular season. The NBA, by contrast, is more dependent on national broadcasts, which increases the value of its media rights packages for networks like NBC and ESPN.

That distinction is central to how each league is priced. NBC’s new NBA deal will cost roughly $2.5 billion per year over the next 11 seasons. By comparison, its MLB package costs about $200 million annually.

There is a credible argument that NBC overpaid for the NBA while securing MLB at a relative discount. The scale of the NBA deal could also affect NBC’s flexibility in future negotiations with the NFL, its most valuable property.

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees. (Photo by Michael Mooney/MLB Photos via Getty Images) 

From a pure cost-to-audience standpoint, MLB currently looks like the better value. Fox would certainly agree, especially after benefiting from strong World Baseball Classic viewership and a 2025 postseason that reached a decade-high audience.

Interestingly, there was industry-wide pushback in 2023 when OutKick argued that MLB had surpassed the NBA in popularity. Now, even the New York Times seems to agree.

"Has MLB overtaken the NBA as America’s No. 2 league?" the Times asked in a headline last week.

Between attendance, local viewership, and the World Series vs. the NBA Finals, the answer is a resounding yes.