Back to the Corn! Field of Dreams Return Draws 1.66M as Schwarber Goes Boom

DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Baseball went back to the future Thursday night, and the numbers are in: MLB's long-awaited return to the Field of Dreams site pulled in an average of 1.66 million viewers on Netflix, according to Nielsen.

That's a solid crowd for a Thursday night in the middle of August, especially for a game played in the middle of absolutely nowhere — which, of course, is exactly the point. The corn was tall, the vibes were immaculate, and the Philadelphia Phillies rolled past the Minnesota Twins 7-1 behind two bombs from Kyle Schwarber.

Schwarber didn't just hit home runs. He hit them into the corn, which is basically the baseball equivalent of walking on water in Iowa.

Netflix Steps Up to the Plate

This was the first year Netflix carried one of MLB's special event games, and the streaming giant didn't embarrass itself. The average viewer age? 46 — the youngest for any MLB special event game. That's a trend worth watching. The sport is trying to court a younger audience, and at the very least, the cornfield classic appears to be moving the needle in the right direction.

For context, last year's Speedway Classic in Bristol, Tennessee — Braves vs. Reds on Fox — averaged 1.6 million viewers. That one needed a rain delay and stretched into Sunday, but still produced a similar number.

And the 2024 Rickwood Field game in Birmingham? That one averaged 2.5 million on Fox, so the Field of Dreams encore didn't quite reach those heights. But considering this was a streaming-only broadcast, and the first one in four years at this iconic site, 1.66 million is nothing to sneeze at.

Hey, when the game is this good — and the setting is this cinematic — people will tune in. Especially when a guy named Schwarber is launching baseballs into a cornfield like he's starring in his own sequel.