Friday’s game between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees attracted 2.03 million viewers 2+, according to overnight numbers from Numeris, eclipsing the 2014-15 NHL season opener between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens (2.01 million) as the largest audience in Sportsnet history.
The audience was 37% greater than that of the previous highest Jays broadcast, 1.48 million for an Aug. 12 game against the Oakland Athletics.
Audience levels during the Friday night game, the first of three games with the Yankees that would determine first place in the American League East, peaked at 3.14 million during shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s 12-pitch at-bat with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The weekend series delivered an average audience of 1.53 million viewers, with an average audience of 1.23 million on Saturday and 1.27 million on Sunday (the Jays’ only win in the three-game series).
It surpassed the Aug. 7-9 series in New York, which attracted an average audience of 1.29 million, as the most-watched Blue Jays series in Sportsnet history. The Rogers-owned channel is averaging 727,000 viewers for its Jays broadcasts this season, the highest average audience in network history, and 24% greater than the average audience in 2014.
Blue Jays telecasts on Sportsnet are averaging 1.27 million viewers since the team’s major splash at the July 31 MLB Trade Deadline, while Sunday’s game versus the Yankees was the 16th Jays telecast to eclipse 1 million viewers.
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