ESPN’s Little League Classic outdraws Netflix’s Field of Dreams

ESPN scored a season-high audience for its presentation of the MLB Little League Classic while also averaging more viewers than MLB at Field of Dreams game on Netflix. However, the viewership still fell below NBC's Sunday Night Baseball average.

Sunday's Atlanta Braves - Milwaukee Brewers game in the Little League Classic averaged 2 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2. Viewership was up 19% from Seattle Mariners-New York Mets in last year's edition (1.70 million).

The game was also ESPN play-by-play man Karl Ravech's final MLB assignment for ESPN after he was laid off by the network.

Viewership peaked at 2.2 million viewers during the 9:45 p.m. ET quarter-hour. It was the most-watched MLB broadcast of the year on ESPN and the second-most-watched Little League Classic ever, behind New York Yankees-Detroit Tigers in 2024 (2.2 million).

ESPN's previous most-watched broadcast was St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs last weekend on ABC, which averaged 1.99 million.

The Little League Classic also easily surpassed the viewership of MLB at Field of Dreams on Netflix ( 1.66 million) . That is a stark contrast from the two other MLB at Field of Dreams events in 2021 and 2022, which both aired on Fox. In 2021, Fox averaged 5.87 million for Field of Dreams compared to 1.01 million for the Little League Classic on ESPN. The next season, Field of Dreams averaged 3.10 million, while the Little League Classic did 1.18 million on ESPN.

Despite the strong numbers for ESPN, the broadcast was not the most-watched MLB telecast of the week. Baseball Night in America on Fox averaged 3.08 million for regional action Saturday night, featuring Giants- Red Sox , Pirates-Dodgers and Cubs-Mariners. That is the third-most-watched Baseball Night in America window this season. Overall, MLB games on Fox are averaging 2.40 million viewers, up 19% from last year.

ESPN's Little League Classic broadcast aired in the network's old Sunday Night Baseball window. Starting this season, that primetime window moved to NBC. The Little League Classic fared less well when compared to Sunday Night Baseball viewership. This season, primetime Sunday Night Baseball games have averaged 2.49 million viewers on NBC and 2.75 million viewers when including Peacock streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics.

San Francisco Giants-Boston Red Sox, which aired Sunday afternoon on NBC and Peacock, averaged 1.7 million viewers. That is tied for the lowest audience of the season on the network with Rangers-Red Sox on Sunday, June 14.

Looking ahead, the Little League Classic will not be on a Sunday next season. Major League Baseball announced that the game will be played on Thursday, August 19, next year, and will feature the Chicago Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays .