Hilarious Yankees ratings update proves 2022 season is different
The 2022 New York Yankees are a magical freight train. They win games when they’re trailing. They win games against top-tier teams and upper-echelon pitching talent. They win games when they’re about to get no-hit (4-2 in games where they’ve been blanked for five or more innings). But you knew that already, as long as you’re watching.
According to the YES Network, people are watching at incredible rates, even when the competition isn’t necessarily at its hottest. One hilarious fact from Monday night’s broadcast really put into perspective just how locked in the city of New York is right now on their special ballclub.
Over the weekend, YES saw a significant bump from the Yankees-Astros games they carried (and why wouldn’t they?), seeing a peak of nearly 700,000 total viewers during Thursday night’s comeback, led by Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge.
That game, of all games, may have been the most absurd of the year. It’s not shocking to find out that tri-state area families were nudging their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and cousins, begging them to tune in midway through Hicks’ bat drop.
But then … well, then Monday’s game against the lowly Oakland A’s went ahead and topped it, ranking as YES’ MOST-VIEWED GAME IN FOUR YEARS.
What?
Yankees-A’s Monday showdown was YES Network’s most-viewed game in four years
Naturally, viewership peaked during 10:00-10:15, right around the time the Yankees finishing up their catchers’ interference-fueled rally. But to see numbers like this for Paul Blackburn-Jordan Montgomery — and coming off a massive series like the Houston feud — is incredible. You’d expect a letdown! Instead, you got the biggest numbers since 2018, as well as the team responding yet again.
This 2022 team’s relationship with the fan base is something special, especially after an offseason spent mostly ruminating on what could’ve been. Remember Freddie Freeman and Carlos Correa? Instead, Brian Cashman pushed many different buttons, and ultimately delivered a wildly popular product.
Even for those who can’t tune into the start of most of this summer’s games, watching only the end should still be extremely worthwhile.
Four times in a week with rallies of three runs or more and the sweet smell of victory.
Yeah, that’s the kind of special season that’ll have fans tuning in at incredible rates.