October 2, 2025 – Just as growth is synonymous with the city of Nashville, even more so with Major League Baseball (MLB), which just finished the regular season with major increases in attendance, television viewership, social media visibility and much more!
The changes made to the game by the league in recent years continue to impact attendance, where the league saw a third consecutive year of growth for the first time in 18 years (2005-2007), culminating in a league-wide attendance total above 71.4 million fans in 2025. The appeal for in-person attendance was bright all season long in Middle Tennessee, as the Nashville Sounds Baseball Club finished with the fourth-highest regular-season attendance in the Minor Leagues, once again eclipsing 500,000 total fans at an average of 7,042 per game.
Fans who weren’t able to make it in person still tuned in on television, as national viewership surged across several platforms, many of which saw double-digit percentage increases. Among the league’s national partners, Turner (Turner Broadcasting System, Inc) garnered its largest viewership since 2011 and led the way with a 29% year-over-year increase, followed by ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (+21%), FOX Sports 1 (10%) and Fox Corporation (+9%). NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation posted a 20% increase — its fifth consecutive yearly gain — by reaching its highest-ever regular-season viewership at an average audience of 2.65 million viewers.
All of this comes as the league aims to expand its fan base, attracting younger audiences to bolster the game’s future. This has resulted in a three-year decrease in the average age of single-game ticket buyers over the last two years, on both the primary (from 46 to 43) and secondary (from 42 to 39) markets. Television networks also saw increased viewership among youth (under-17) and young-adult (18-34) segments of the audience, with the average growth per network at 32% among youth and 27% among young adults.
All of this attention was warranted, as fans saw captivating play throughout the season, including some of the best individual performances in quite some time:
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Seven players — Corbin Carroll, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Francisco Lindor, José Ramírez, Juan Soto, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Julio Rodríguez — tallied at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, setting the all-time single-season record.
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Four different players — Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge — hit 50 home runs this year, tied for the most in a season in MLB history.
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Shohei Ohtani hit 55 home runs and notched 62 strikeouts, becoming the first player ever to notch at least 50 in each category – after his groundbreaking 50/50 season (home runs, stolen bases) in 2024.
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With a win in his regular season finale, Clayton Kershaw will retire with a career regular-season record of 223-96 (.699). Among all-time pitchers with fewer than 100 losses, Ron Guidry (170-91 career record) is the next closest to him in wins with 53 fewer, followed by Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax (165-87; 58 fewer wins).
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With a 1.97 ERA in 2025, Paul Skenes became the first qualified pitcher with an ERA below 2.00 in his age-23 season or younger since Dwight Gooden in 1985.