Unprecedented World Series Pairing Sparks Record Baseball Viewership

As the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason progresses, it has hit a seven-year high in viewership, thanks to a highly anticipated World Series matchup. Based on Nielsen’s data, the League Championship Series has seen an average of 5.35 million viewers across Fox, FS1, and TBS, marking the highest viewership since 2017.

Soaring Viewership for Key Games

The National League Championship Series (NLCS) opener on October 13, between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, pulled in a staggering 20.6 million viewers in the United States and Japan combined, according to MLB. This event was a key contributor to the impressive figures, which included an estimated average of 12.1 million viewers in Japan, placing it as the country’s second most-watched MLB postseason game ever.

The most-watched game in Japan’s history happened on October 11, with an estimated audience of 12.9 million for the Dodgers’ 2-0 triumph over the San Diego Padres in the decisive fifth game of the National League Division Series.

Record Viewership for Fox and FS1

Fox and FS1 averaged 5.62 million viewers for the NLCS, which culminated in the Dodgers’ victory in six games. This made it the networks’ most-watched championship series since 2019.

On the other hand, the American League Championship Series (ALCS) between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians on TBS averaged 4.9 million viewers. Notably, the fifth game of this series, which led to the Yankees’ first World Series qualification since 2009 following a 5-2 victory in 10 innings, attracted an average of 5.6 million viewers. This represented a 33% jump compared to Game 5 of the previous year’s ALCS between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.

Boost in Viewership for the World Series Opener

The World Series opener on Friday between the Yankees and Dodgers saw an average of 3.96 million viewers. This figure reflects a 5% increase from the previous year, and the first Fall Classic in 43 years between the Dodgers and Yankees is expected to further boost the numbers.

This anticipated rise in viewership comes after the least-watched World Series last year, which was between the Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, averaging 9.11 million viewers.

Optimistic Expectations for Future Viewership

Fox and MLB would be delighted if viewership could come close to the 22.9 million average from 2016, when the Chicago Cubs clinched their first championship since 1908 after defeating Cleveland in seven games.

Mike Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics, expressed his optimism, stating, “We’re hoping for at least a five-year high. Ideally, we might even reach an eight-year high. That would be a pleasant surprise. Given Fox’s history with baseball, we once thought it would be amazing if Boston won the World Series. That happened. Then we thought, what if the Cubs won the World Series? And that also happened. This is sort of the last dream scenario we’ve yet to cover.”