On a night when Shohei Ohtani once again defied the limits of baseball, Patrick Mahomes and the NFL proved something else entirely. Football continues to reign supreme in America.
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According to Nielsen, Fox, and MLB, Monday night’s 18-inning marathon between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays averaged 11.31 million viewers in the U.S., peaking at 13.17 million as the game entered extra innings.
However, even those late-night dramatics, capped by Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer at nearly 3 a.m. ET, couldn’t dethrone Monday Night Football.
For as it turned out, the primetime clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Commanders drew an eye-popping 17.6 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, and NFL+. This made it the most-watched Week 8 MNF broadcast since 2014, easily outpacing the World Series Game 3.
Notably, the numbers mark a reversal from last year, when World Series Game 3 outdrew a MNF game between the Steelers and the Giants (13.6 million against the NFL’s 13.4 million). But this time, America’s appetite for football proved unshakeable, even with the Commanders missing stars like starting quarterback Jayden Daniels and wide receiver Terry McLaurin.
Only with Canadian and Japanese audiences combined, Ohtani’s combined viewership rose to 17.62 million across North America, slightly surpassing the NFL count. And let’s not forget, many of those late-innings viewers likely came from the NFL once the MNF game ended.
Speaking of the baseball game, even though there wasn’t much focus on Ohtani, credit must be given where it’s due because his performance was nothing short of mythic. The Dodgers’ two-way marvel homered twice, tied a 119-year-old MLB record with four extra-base hits, and reached base nine times, becoming the first player in 83 years to achieve that feat.
NFL fans, however, seemingly couldn’t care less about this, for they already came up with their verdict: “Mahomes is more popular than Ohtani!” wrote a fan. “Baseball’s been dead for years,” added another.
A few, meanwhile, were genuinely surprised to see MNF’s numbers, considering the Chiefs-Commanders match wasn’t anything to write home about. “MNF was a 21-point game, a blowout in the 4th. Its just crazy how popular NFL is…” said one. “Crazy. MNF was really a mid matchup,” chimed in another.
Still, what makes this twist even more interesting is that Mahomes himself is a massive Shohei Ohtani admirer. Speaking earlier this month about the Japanese superstar’s two-way dominance, Mahomes, whose father Pat Mahomes Sr. was an MLB pitcher, could hardly contain his awe.
“To be able to be that dominant, pitching the ball, throwing 100, and then going and hitting home runs and changing the outcome of the game… it’s remarkable,” the 3x Super Bowl winner said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the league, also, if not the best, one of the best hitters… top two, with him and [Aaron] Judge.”
So while NFL fans might argue that Patrick Mahomes is the bigger draw, the Chiefs quarterback himself seems to have no doubt about who’s rewriting the rules of greatness.
