It is no secret that the All-Star Game is dying. This year the combined All-Star Game viewership across the four major sports was just 32.9 million. 16.8 not including the viewership that the NHL’s Four Nations Face-Off got when the United States played Canada in the championship game. It did not used to be this way. In 1993, Michael Jordan went up against Charles Barkley in the NBA All-Star Game which attracted nearly 23 million viewers. Fast forward to 2025 and the game recorded only 4.7 million viewers. So what happened? My answer: the game was simpler back then.
In 1993, the All-Star Game had a simple and easy to understand format. The best players from the East played one game against the best players from the West, and that was it.
However this year the NBA introduced an entirely new format: a mini tournament that consisted of four teams whose rosters were selected based on categories given to NBA analysts. For example, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal picked the roster for his team based on a list of the best American-raised players. Another was Chuck’s Global Stars, Charles Barkley’s team which was made up of the best players born outside of the U.S.. The two other teams included young and rising stars of the NBA. The main problem I see with this is that the NBA needs to be focusing on making their players motivated to play in special events like the All-Star Game. Making the format more confusing and complex is not going to help whatsoever. Sophomore Aarav Deveryshetty shared his opinion on the different format, starting with the way the teams were picked.
“I like the idea of a draft, but I’d rather it wouldn’t have been staged,” Deveryshetty said. “It was already known that Shaq was drafting certain types of players. Other reporters drafted younger ones, one was going international. If they just played it like a regular game that had some sort of meaning, people would find it more enjoyable.”
Until the NBA can create a competitive and meaningful format for the All-Star Game, the unimpressive viewership numbers will continue to decline.
While this is concerning, the NBA is not the only league experiencing these problems. This year’s Pro Bowl had the lowest viewership in the history of the NFL.
Ever since the Pro Bowl was played in Hawaii for the last time in 2016, interest has seemingly gone down. From 1980 to 2009, the NFL Pro Bowl was held at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii. Not only was this great for growing the game of football but it also allowed players to compete in a unique location. In 2010, the NFL began experimenting with playing the game in the mainland U.S.. In the following years the game was bounced back and forth between Hawaii, Miami and one year in Glendale Arizona, until 2017 when the game was moved to Orlando. The game experienced decent success with the 2018 and 2019 games both getting over 8 million viewers. However things took a turn in 2023 when the NFL Pro Bowl was transitioned to a flag football game. The main concern for the league was the injury risk that comes with playing a tackle game, which is understandable but the flag football style of play takes the intensity out of the game and makes for a boring and unentertaining matchup.
I find it interesting that the NFL had the least watched all-star competition this year even though football is the most watched regular season sport in America. And despite baseball having one of the smaller followings in professional sports, the MLB All-Star Game has never dropped below seven million viewers.
America’s Pastime has always been at the top of charts when it comes to All-Star Game viewership. In the 70’s and 80’s the game consistently recorded viewership numbers higher than 25 million. In 2003, The MLB decided to grant the winner of the All-Star Game home field advantage in the world series to make the game more competitive. Although this did not have too much of an impact on viewership, it increased the stakes of the game and motivated the players to give it their all out on the field. However in 2017 the league made the decision to award home field advantage based on a teams regular season record. This change resulted in even lower viewership in the years that followed. Though not all hope is lost as last season’s 7.44 million All-Star Game viewers ended the downward trend, with nearly half a million more viewers then the previous year.
Looking over the MLB’s All-Star Game success, it is safe to say that player interest and effort has a large impact on viewership. If players don’t want to play, fans won’t want to watch. This year, the National Hockey League stepped away from the All-Star Game and took a different approach. One that would create a fun and intense style of play that players want to participate in. Historically, the NHL All-Star Game has been an afterthought for most sports fans. Since 2019, the game has never recorded over 2 million viewers. Unlike other leagues, the NHL saw these poor rates and decided that there needed to be change. In February of last year, the commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman announced that the 2025 All-Star Game will be replaced with the 4 Nations Face-Off. A best on best tournament that included the top NHL players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden. Even though it was just an exhibition tournament, the players treated every game like it was the Stanley Cup Final because they were representing their countries. In the round robin game between the U.S. and Canada, there were three fights in just nine seconds, and a total of 63 hits throughout the game, which the U.S. went on to win 3-1. These two teams met again in the championship game, which Canada ended up winning in overtime. This thrilling game had over 16 million viewers, which is double the amount that watched game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, further proving if players care, good results will follow.
I think other leagues can learn from the NHL. This doesn’t necessarily mean they need to have an international tournament like the 4 Nations Face-Off, but adding a couple rules to raise the stakes and make the game worth something can really help get the viewership numbers back to where they used to be. Until then, I anticipate that viewership will continue to decline.
