Little League World Series Sees Highest Viewership Since 2015

The 2023 Little League Baseball World Series was ESPN’s most-watched edition of the tournament since 2015, according to Nielsen. Across all 38 games, the tournament averaged 1,081,000 viewers, a 22 percent increase from last year’s LLWS on ESPN platforms. 

Sunday’s championship game drew nearly three million viewers on ABC with a 2.9 million average, making it the most-watched LLWS championship since 2019. California’s Little League team from El Segundo won the championship off a walk-off home run to clinch its 6-5 victory over Curaçao in Williamsport, Pa. The championship game peaked at 4 million viewers. 

MLB strengthened its relationship with Little League in 2017 by launching the MLB Little League Classic, an annual MLB game played each year at Bowman Field in Williamsport during the LLWS. MLB just announced an extension of its Little League partnership to continue promoting youth baseball and softball activations, including Little League Days at MLB Ballparks and the T-Mobile Little League Home Run Derby,

This year’s sixth-annual MLB Little League Classic featured the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies playing on Sunday.

“I’m going to start off by saying I want to come back,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said after Washington’s 4-3 win in Williamsport. “What a great experience for the players, for the guys, for our organization. It was unbelievable. A long day, but an unbelievable day. We all had fun.”

ESPN says that viewership for this year’s Little League World Series was up double-digits in all key demographics. The championship broadcast was up 18% over last year’s final between Honolulu and Curaçao.