As Major League Baseball (MLB) continues its postseason, it has reached seven years of viewing, thanks to the highly anticipated game of the World Series. Based on Nielsen data, the League Championship Series saw an average of 5.35 million viewers across Fox, FS1, and TBS, marking the most viewers since 2017.
An Advanced View of Important Games
The opening of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) on October 13, between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, drew 20.6 million viewers in the United States and Japan combined, according to MLB. The event was a major contributor to the impressive numbers, which averaged 12.1 million viewers in Japan, ranking it as the country’s second most-watched MLB postseason game.
The most watched game in Japanese history took place on October 11, with an estimated audience of 12.9 million when the Dodgers won 2-0 over the San Diego Padres in the pivotal fifth game of the National League Division Series.
Record shows for Fox and FS1
Fox and FS1 drew 5.62 million viewers for the NLCS, which culminated in the Dodgers’ six-game winning streak. This made it the network’s most watched series of 2019.
On the other hand, the American League Championship Series (ALCS) between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians on TBS averaged 4.9 million viewers. Notably, game five of the series, which led to the Yankees’ first World Series title since 2009 following a 5-2 victory in 10 innings, drew an average of 5.6 million viewers. This represents a 33% jump compared to Game 5 of last year’s ALCS between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.
Improve World Series Opening View
Friday’s World Series opener between the Yankees and Dodgers averaged 3.96 million viewers. This number represents a 5% increase from last year, and the first Fall Classic in 43 years between the Dodgers and Yankees is expected to boost the numbers.
This expected increase in viewership comes after last year’s least-watched World Series, between the Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, which averaged 9.11 million viewers.
Optimistic Expectations for the Future of Viewing
Fox and MLB would be happy if viewers could approach 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, saying, “We’re hoping to at least go up by five years. Ideally, we may even reach an eight-year high. That would be a pleasant surprise. Given Fox’s history with baseball, we once thought it would be great if Boston won the World Series. That happened. Then we thought, what if the Cubs win the World Series? And that happened. This is kind of the last dream state we’re going to talk about.”
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