The MLB Wild Card round, first round of the WNBA Playoffs and start to the NHL season went head-to-head on Tuesday, and baseball came away a big winner with the best game audience to start the first round in two decades.
Yankees-Red Sox Game 1 in primetime on NBC drew 7.3 million viewers, which is the best Game 1 for any Wild Card or LDS game since Tigers-Yankees drew 8.4 million in the ALDS on Fox in 2006. The audience was up 12% from ESPN’s 6.5 million viewers for Game 1 of the same matchup in last year’s Wild Card round. Earlier in the day in the 2pm ET window, Braves-Phillies drew 3.9 million viewers on NBC, marking the best afternoon Game 1 since the current Wild Card format started in 2020. Figures were not yet available for the Peacock-exclusive games, which were much lower than the broadcast TV counterparts.
Up against MLB Wild Card games, Prime Video saw its best WNBA game audience yet, averaging 1.42 million viewers for Aces-Fever Game 2. That’s also up from 1.28 million for the Fever’s Game 2 against the Dream on ESPN last year in a similar window. Later on Tuesday night, USA Network and CNBC averaged a combined 1.06 million for Liberty-Lynx Game 2, up from 949,000 viewers for the comparable Aces-Storm Game 2 on ESPN last year.
The NHL opened its 2026-27 regular season with 859,000 viewers for Panthers-Hurricanes in the 5pm ET window on ESPN, up 16% from Blackhawks-Panthers in the same slot last year. In primetime, Rangers-Bruins drew 878,000 viewers on ESPN, down 19% from 1.09 million for Rangers-Penguins in the same slot in 2025. Rangers-Bruins had to deal with viewers in the markets likely watching the Yankees-Red Sox game.