The 2024 World Series may have been short, but the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees still proved they could attract viewers.
Game 5 of the World Series averaged 18.6 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming services, the network said, making it the fifth most-watched game on Fox since the World Series 2017. The Dodgers won the match 7-6 to clinch their eighth title.
The numbers represent a 58% increase from Game 5 of last year’s World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. continuing a trend that started with the first game. With a title within reach, Los Angeles posted higher local stats than New York, with a 21.1 rating and 55 share.
Viewership peaked between 11:15 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. ET Thursday, around the time the Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth inning and asked Blake Treinen to defend that lead with a scoreless frame.
Overall, the World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers per game, the league’s highest rating since 2017.
That’s why Fox probably wants the Yankees to last a little longer. The network was would have averaging $44.3 million in ad revenue over the first five games, with the possibility of an even higher figure in games 6 and 7.
But that’s only half the story of the ratings bonanza. There is also the question of Japan, who posted record numbers in the first two games of the series. Consider that national hero Shohei Ohtani was on the verge of a breakthrough title in Games 4 and 5, the numbers for this region should be even higher when they enter.
It’s perhaps worth asking how the numbers from just seven years ago are a win for MLB given that it’s hard to envision a better possible game from a ratings perspective, but the league has been battling a television industry-wide decline in viewership for years.
The period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has been particularly difficult for the sports industry, such that almost all major leagues will remain where they were for seven years. Except, of course, the NFL.
