The 2024 World Series might have been short, but the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees still proved they can draw in viewers.
Game 5 of the World Series drew an average 18.6 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming services, the network announced, making it the most watched Game 5 on Fox since the 2017 World Series. The Dodgers .
The numbers are a 58% bump from Game 5 of last year’s World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, . With a title in reach, Los Angeles posted the higher local metrics than New York, with a 21.1 rating and 55 share.
Viewership peaked between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, roughly around the time the Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth inning and had Blake Treinen defend that lead with a scoreless frame.
Overall, the World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers per game, the league’s highest mark since 2017.
It’s for that reason Fox is probably wishing the Yankees lasted a little longer. The network was averaging $44.3 million in ad revenue in the first five games, with the chance for an even higher number in Games 6 and 7.
That’s only half the story of the ratings bonanza, though. There’s also the matter of Japan, . Considering national hero Shohei Ohtani was on the verge of a breakthrough title in Games 4 and 5, the numbers for that region should be even higher when they come in.
It might be worth asking how numbers from only seven years ago are a win for MLB given that it’s hard to envision a better possible matchup from a ratings standpoint, but the league has been fighting a television industry-wide decline in viewers for years now.
The period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has been particularly rough for the sports industry, so nearly any major league will take where it was seven years. Except for, of course, .