Phillies Opening Day draws huge ratings, big crowd
By John Town
![PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 28: Aaron Nola #27 of the Philadelphia Phillies walks back to the dugout during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday, March 28, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images) PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 28: Aaron Nola #27 of the Philadelphia Phillies walks back to the dugout during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday, March 28, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/https-3A-2F-2Fthatballsouttahere-com-2Fwp-content-2Fuploads-2Fgetty-images-2F2017-2F07-2F1133348922-850x560-729afb154505039dd81cc77c0878dd57.jpg)
To little surprise, the Phillies drew a huge crowd on Opening Day and smashed last year’s TV ratings for Opening Day, a sign of things to come.
To say this year’s Opening Day was the most exciting for Phillies fans in years is an understatement. After a grueling but extremely productive offseason landed the team their golden goose and other big upgrades, fan engagement is the highest since the club’s run of division championships at the turn of the decade.
Therefore, it was no surprise that fans showed up in droves to the first game of the season. The club got a sold-out crowd of 44,469, just 17 fans short of last year’s home opener. The crowd was electric with (almost) everyone welcoming Bryce Harper with open arms.
A key difference between this year and last is that attendance should remain high throughout the season. The team sold 100,000 tickets when the Harper signing was reported and demand on the resale market has risen considerably compared to last year.
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Perhaps an even bigger development was the jump in TV ratings for the club. Over 284,000 households in the area tuned into the game, good for a 10.1 rating on NBC10. The channel also drew a 27 share, meaning about one in four people in each household watched the game. This doubled last year’s ratings for Opening Day and the club should see higher ratings throughout the season.
In addition, NBC Sports Philadelphia got record ratings for streaming the game. 37,000 unique viewers watched the game using their streaming service with two million minutes watched according to the network. Both those numbers also doubled last year’s marks. That doesn’t even factor in who streamed the game through other avenues like ESPN+ or MLB.tv.
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The high ratings should not be too surprising considering Harper’s spring training debut set records. Those ratings pale in comparison to what the team got on Opening Day, but it still showed that fans are excited about this team.