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Baseball came back in a big way on the national stage during the 2024 World Series, closing out the five-game Dodgers win over the Yankees with the event’s best showing since 2017.
Fox Sports said the taut series—far closer than the final margin would suggest—averaged 15.8 million viewers across all network platforms, 74% over last year’s matchup between the Rangers and Diamondbacks that drew a record-low audience. Each of the five games this year carried a noteworthy element:
- Game 1 (Oct. 25): 15.2 million viewers. The game was the best Fall Classic opener in seven years, providing a key early base for the subsequent viewership increases to come.
- Game 2 (Oct. 26): 13.8 million viewers. Competing against a full slate of college football, this game actually improved on the opener’s lift compared to 2023.
- Game 3 (Oct. 28): 13.6 million viewers. This contest won out in 2024’s only sports equinox and even gave MLB a rare head-to-head win over the NFL.
- Game 4 (Oct. 29): 16.7 million viewers. Until Game 5, this was the most-watched MLB game since Game 7 of the 2019 World Series.
- Game 5 (Oct. 30): 18.6 million viewers. The Dodgers’ clinching game was up by 58% from last year’s Game 5, also a clincher for the Rangers. The contest peaked at a whopping 21.3 million viewers in the ninth inning as Los Angeles closed out the dramatic, comeback victory.
The overall lift also arrived despite the league and network missing out on a sixth and seventh game of the World Series that would have drawn even higher viewership totals, and tens of millions in additional advertising revenue for Fox Sports.
The high-profile matchup included two of the league’s most popular teams and the two largest U.S. media markets. But MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier during the World Series that totals such as these are both a culmination and acceleration of several league initiatives, including prominently marketing the game’s stars and leaning more in to the sport’s international appeal.
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