As tears dried and champagne flowed in the afterglow of Venezuela’s dramatic defeat of the United States in the World Baseball Classic remaining, even these strolling away with silver medals declared victory for the sport.
Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper, whose late dwelling run helped morph the recreation into an immediate basic, mentioned, “I thought baseball won.” Team USA’s youngest participant, 21-year-old Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, echoed that sentiment: “The game’s in a better place than it’s ever been.”
The remaining was the most-watched game in WBC historical past, drawing practically 10.8 million viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes — greater than doubling the viewership (4.48 million) of the 2023 remaining, and exceeding the seven-game common of the 2025 NBA Finals (10.2 million). Last fall, Fox recorded its highest common World Series viewership (15.7 million) since 2017, propelled by world famous person Shohei Ohtani and the dynastic Los Angeles Dodgers.
As baseball stacks wins and one other Opening Day dawns, a debate has resurfaced in barrooms and on social media: Has Major League Baseball overtaken the National Basketball Association as America’s No. 2 league?
“If you were listening to which ways the winds were blowing even a couple years ago,” mentioned Scott Rosner, who leads Columbia University’s sports activities administration program, “there really wouldn’t have been a conversation.”
Not way back, baseball was fading from the image. In 2017, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote, “All signs point to the NBA replacing the NFL as the league of America’s future.” (Stephen A. Smith agreed.) But lately the NFL has prolonged its lead, the NBA has misplaced momentum, and MLB has reestablished itself with rule modifications to enliven the motion on the diamond.
Who’s No. 2 now?
That relies upon upon the metrics you’re utilizing. So, in an try to use some degree of rigor to this debate, we consulted a handful of material specialists, from sports activities economists to pollsters, and got here up with classes to think about when evaluating the leagues.
Polling
Since 1937, Gallup has periodically requested Americans which sport is their favourite to look at. The NFL surpassed MLB in 1972. The NBA slid into second place for the first time in 1997 — the peak of Michael Jordan mania. But over the previous quarter-century, the NBA and MLB have yo-yoed forwards and backwards in the ballot. The solely fixed: falling additional behind the NFL.
However, one other Gallup ballot asking Americans to say whether or not they’re a fan of every sport, exhibits each professional baseball and professional basketball have gained followers. From 2001 to 2019, the share of respondents figuring out as baseball followers was up from 46 to 54 %, and people figuring out as basketball followers rose from 36 % to 44 %.
There is clearer sign in 2025 polling carried out by Sports Poll — a service managed by the survey and market analysis agency SSRS — which confirmed MLB outpacing the NBA in informal followers (61 % to 55 %), avid followers (15 % to 14 %) and followers who recognized that league as their favourite (9 % to 7 %).
Each month, Sports Poll requested followers, “Which sport are you most interested in right now?” The NBA solely led MLB throughout baseball’s 4 offseason months.
By that query, “MLB is pretty clearly ahead of the NBA,” mentioned Chad Menefee, govt vp of strategic intelligence at SSRS. But there are others.
Social Media
Where the NBA is fairly clearly forward: the web.
“It’s night and day,” Rosner mentioned. “The NBA is on a totally different level from a social-media perspective. The currency that that has in today’s world is really meaningful.”
The NBA is a highlights league, which play effectively on social media, however the development has not occurred by likelihood. It’s been a league precedence. NBA league accounts should not the solely ones operating laps round MLB; NBA groups and particular person stars have far larger follower counts, too. The NBA has greater than six instances as many followers as MLB on Instagram, practically 4 instances as many on Twitter, and greater than 3 times as many on YouTube. Analysis of Google Trends exhibits roughly twice as many searches for “NBA” than “MLB” in a mean 12 months.
The NBA maintains far higher cultural relevance. NBA stars are family names in a manner MLB stars should not, even with the rise of Ohtani. Polling bears that out: While Sports Poll respondents have been 4 % extra prone to say their favourite staff was an MLB membership than an NBA staff, they have been additionally 4 % extra prone to say their favourite athlete performed in the NBA than in MLB.
While MLB has made strides internationally recently, the NBA’s world development started many years in the past and has them “light years ahead” of the different 4 main U.S. sports activities, Rosner mentioned, “The NBA wasn’t an overnight success. That really was the byproduct of very intentional business decisions that were made over a stretch of time. You don’t just flip a switch and say, ‘We want to be more global.’”
Ratings
One apparent manner to determine which league is extra standard is by merely who will get extra individuals to look at on TV. That needs to be straightforward sufficient.
Ah effectively, nothing is straightforward sufficient in the media world today.
MLB, which has lengthy relied upon sturdy native TV viewership figures, is coming off its finest season of nationwide viewership shortly. It averaged 1.8 million viewers per recreation on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” and 2.04 million on Fox. It additionally averaged 462,000 viewers for TBS video games, up 29 % from the earlier 12 months.
The NBA is having 12 months, too. It made the transfer to new TV companions this season, including NBC and Amazon Prime Video as broadcasters and dropping TNT, whereas persevering with its relationship with ESPN/ABC. NBA video games are at present averaging 1.8 million viewers throughout these three networks, in line with SportsMediaWatch, up 16 % from the 2024-25 season.
NBA video games on NBC are averaging 2.6 million viewers on common, whereas ESPN/ABC video games are averaging 2.06 million viewers, and streaming-only video games on Amazon are averaging 1.06 million viewers.
By these numbers, the NBA is successful the viewership battle of late.
Yet, MLB has posted higher numbers for large occasions lately. The 2025 World Series far surpassed the NBA Finals in viewership for his or her two respective Game 7s: Thunder-Pacers drew 16.61 million viewers, whereas Dodgers-Blue Jays averaged 25.98 million viewers. That was a continuation of a latest development in viewership for the two sports activities, the place common viewership for the World Series surged above the Finals.
Of course, there are different elements at play. The final two World Series have included the big-market Dodgers, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. The Finals, against this, had its smallest-market matchup ever last June, and a short five-game sequence in 2024 between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics. Short sequence and smaller markets make for decrease rankings. That’s why the 2023 World Series, between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, was a viewership dud, too.
The title contenders change annually, as does what different competitors is on TV. Certain matchups will entice extra unaffiliated followers, and others extra gamblers. David Carter, principal of the consultancy the Sports Business Group, mentioned the championship viewership figures, like the different NBA-MLB comparability classes, “are interesting snapshots, but only snapshots.” He added, “All of these are interesting data points, but it’s a little bit of a fool’s errand to say with absolute certainty across the board that one is more popular than the other.”
Media rights
As shut as MLB and the NBA are in rankings, their nationwide media-rights offers are radically totally different.
Baseball’s media scenario is in flux after it was dumped by ESPN in 2024 and unexpectedly needed to hit the market to discover a new dwelling for its marquee in-season bundle, “Sunday Night Baseball,” as effectively as different nights.
MLB pulls in someplace north of $2 billion yearly from its nationwide companions. About $1.35 billion of that comes from Fox and Turner, which carry the bulk of the sport’s playoff video games. The the rest comes by way of offers with Apple, Netflix, NBC and a reunion with ESPN, which is paying about $550 million.
But the new ESPN association muddies a direct comparability with one other league. Besides the rights to typical nationwide recreation telecasts, ESPN additionally acquired a slew of MLB groups’ native rights, as effectively the league’s out-of-market bundle, MLB.tv.
No matter the way it’s counted, although, baseball’s nationwide haul is a far cry from the NBA’s mega media-rights offers that kicked on this season. The 11-year, $77-billion collection of offers with Amazon, ESPN and NBC surpassed expectations and made the NBA the envy of each sports activities league in America outdoors of the NFL. The heft of basketball’s nationwide offers, Rosner mentioned, “has put them on a different plane, at least for now.”
The demographics of NBA viewership appear to be much more enticing to community executives than MLB’s fanbase. A 2024 study from Playfly Sports decided the NBA had “the youngest and most diverse fanbase of the four major U.S. sports,” with 56 % of the league’s followers below 44 years outdated and 40 % non-white. For MLB, 51 % of followers have been below 44 years outdated, and 33 % have been non-white.
“What baseball had been experiencing for the better part of a half century, maybe more, was an aging,” mentioned Michael Leeds, an economics professor at Temple. “People like me — old people — still enjoyed baseball, but it was not doing anything to really attract younger fans, casual fans and, to an extent, missing out on people of color.”
MLB has touted features in attracting youthful viewers lately, nevertheless.
“We always look at the younger population,” added Shirin Mollah, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount. “Are they watching sports? What sports are they watching? How can advertising come into place where they capture the younger demographics?”
Demographics change slowly. A key for MLB getting into its subsequent nationwide media rights offers — the present ones expire after the 2028 season — shall be persevering with to point out its viewership getting youthful as the recreation evolves.
“The older the fanbase, the less monetizable it is,” Carter mentioned. “Baseball has been working very hard to lower the age of its average fan, because even if they have the same number of eyeballs, the eyeballs are not equally profitable.”
Revenue
If you ask an economist, they’ll inform you the finest solution to distinguish which sports activities league is No. 2 is to watch spending.
“People reveal what something’s worth to them by what they’re willing to pay to have it,” mentioned Victor Matheson, an economics professor at Holy Cross.
In 2024, MLB had $12.1 billion in total revenues. That file excessive is barely half the NFL’s $23 billion total revenues from the 2024-25 fiscal 12 months, however it’s carefully in keeping with the NBA’s development. The NBA reported about $12.8 billion in gross income in 2024-25, according to Sportico, and is projected for $14.3 billion this 12 months. Rosner, the Columbia sports activities administration professor, mentioned his college students are all the time stunned about how shut the revenues are between the MLB and NBA.
“Major League Baseball was well on its way to getting eclipsed by the NBA in terms of total revenue until they started to take some actions to make it the sport of the next generation — not the sport of my grandfather’s generation,” Matheson mentioned.
Generally, economists would additionally seek the advice of attendance as a main indicator of league success. But that’s a difficult endeavor on this case. MLB not solely has twice the variety of video games, however its ballparks are on common twice the measurement of NBA arenas. Still, when evaluating year-over-year attendance developments, the NBA has reported a gradual climb over the previous 25 years — from a 16,864 per-game common attendance in 2000 to 18,153 in 2024-25 — whereas MLB has fluctuated.
MLB’s common attendance in 2025 (29,373) was virtually equivalent to its 2000 common (29,377), but in between the common attendance spiked as excessive as 32,696 in 2007, dropped as low as 28,203 in 2019, and has rebounded properly since the pandemic.
Franchise valuations
Let’s proceed to observe the greenback indicators. Investors are (principally) rational, and the way they spend their wealth may be an indicator of how they view the two sports activities.
Franchise worth is a worthwhile indicator of league well being “because it’s more forward-looking” than revenues, Mollah mentioned. “With franchise values, you’re looking more at the long run — the media deals coming in, the international growth potential, the pricing power, fan engagement.”
Right now, franchise values inform us the NBA is in a a lot better place than MLB. The common NBA staff is valued at $5.51 billion, per Sportico, whereas the common MLB staff is price $3.17 billion. The Golden State Warriors are the most respected NBA staff, at $11.33 billion, and are price practically $2 billion greater than the Yankees. The least expensive NBA staff is price $4 billion; the least expensive MLB staff is valued at $1.45 billion.
In the previous two years, the Tampa Bay Rays bought for $1.7 billion and the Baltimore Orioles for $1.725 billion, respectively. The San Diego Padres are prone to sell for more than $3.5 billion, shattering MLB’s earlier file sale: Steve Cohen’s $2.42 billion buy of the New York Mets. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers bought at a $10 billion valuation, the Boston Celtics for $6.1 billion and the Portland Trailblazers for greater than $4 billion.
“An economist would say, the proof is where your money is,” Matheson mentioned. “Revealed preference tells you what’s most popular. And revealed preference is: What do I do when I have money in my pocket? As of now, the NBA and MLB are pretty much tied (in revenues). Investors’ money thinks that the NBA is the better long-term bet, hence higher franchise valuations.”
Matheson provided two causes that leagues with related revenues might need vastly totally different franchise values. The first is that buyers count on revenues to develop quicker in the NBA than in MLB. The second is that they’re targeted much less on revenues than earnings, and it could possibly be that they view NBA franchises as extra prone to be worthwhile as a result of, past the booming revenues, the NBA has the value certainty of a wage cap. MLB homeowners don’t have that — although they’re anticipated to once more combat for it quickly.
While the NBA is quickly anticipated to command record-setting enlargement charges of as much as $10 billion, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in 2021 gave credence to the concept that about $2.2 billion could be an affordable determine in baseball, based mostly on an estimate of common franchise values. Those values have solely grown since then.
Admittedly, enlargement charges and franchise valuations aren’t a clear-cut argument that the NBA is extra standard than MLB. More standard amongst the individuals shopping for sports activities franchises? For certain. Among the remainder of us hoi polloi? Not essentially. Not even all economists discover franchise valuations persuasive. Leeds mentioned, “I shy away from franchise valuations because, in terms of popularity, I’m not sure that really captures everything.”
Vibes
Leeds, the Temple economics professor, mentioned he hasn’t seen MLB on this place of energy in many years. Baseball is resurgent. Rule modifications have sped up video games. Ratings are up. Attendance is up. Ohtani and Aaron Judge are megastars in big markets. Leeds’ spouse, who grew up in the former Czechoslovakia, insisted upon the couple staying up late to look at the Czechia’s WBC video games.
“Everything is coming together beautifully for baseball,” Leeds mentioned. “And I’m afraid they’re going to blow it.”
The biggest risk MLB’s present heater is a potential work stoppage. In The Athletic’s reader poll, 77 % of respondents believed MLB will miss video games due to a lockout in 2027, and 67 % indicated such a disruption would negatively impression their fandom. Yet followers bothered by the league’s present aggressive steadiness could possibly be prepared to simply accept a protracted lockout if it ends in the adoption of a wage cap system — a measure 68 percent of survey respondents supported.
The rise of the Dodgers and the manner they use their monetary may has deeply troubled many in different fan bases. And on the subject, MLB continues to be tormented by excessive strikeout charges and low batting averages. But total, the league has shed its status as a troublesome watch. MLB has “been very effective at finally kind of throwing off the old school and saying, ‘Hey, we really need to do some things to make sure this game stays relevant,’” Matheson mentioned. MLB continues to tinker; the Automated Ball-Strike problem system is the newest innovation.
Now, the NBA is dealing with criticism for its product.
Its in-season match has promise however hasn’t been a breakout success. Action is overwhelmed by 3-pointers. Final scores can balloon into the 140s. The final minute of video games generally is a slog. Lately, the league has been busy with off-court hurdles: addressing tanking, investigating potential cap circumvention and coping with a playing scandal that has commanded extra public scrutiny than MLB’s personal playing scandal.
While MLB has modified its guidelines lately to nice success, the NBA is now attempting to do the similar. It has made a push to make its star gamers get on the court docket extra ceaselessly and eat at the pesky load administration conundrum that drew criticism from followers and media alike. This season’s All-Star Game was a hit after years of attempting and failing to repair it, boasting its largest viewers in 15 years (8.8 million), practically twice as many viewers as watched final season. Foul grifting is trending down. Young stars are rising to transition the league into a brand new period, even when they won’t change LeBron James and Steph Curry.
Dennis Coates, a UMBC economics professor, grew up at a time when baseball was nonetheless king, and the NBA far behind in third place. He’s not but swayed by arguments about MLB’s sudden resurgence — partially as a result of a few of the rule modifications (like the extra-innings runner) rankle him; as a result of his native staff, the Baltimore Orioles, have underwhelmed just lately; and since a combat for which league is a distant No. 2 to the NFL is admittedly trivial. But that’s what makes it an important bar debate, Coates mentioned.
“Well, I’m not sure it’s great,” Coates corrected, with amusing. (*2*)
With experiences from The Athletic‘s Chad Jennings and Matt Gelb