MLB's strong postseason ratings continue with boost from NLCS

League: MLB


Posted on: 23 Oct, 2024 at 12:45 AM

Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Fox Sports and FS1 are having a banner year for MLB postseason ratings, and the major-market World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees hasn't even started.

The two sister networks are averaging 4,728,000 viewers per game, up 33 percent from this point last year and their best MLB postseason since 2017.

They averaged 5,627,000 viewers for the National League Championship Series between the victorious Dodgers and the New York Mets, which went six games. That's a 20 percent boost from the 2023 NLCS (Phillies-Diamondbacks) and 21 percent better than in 2022 (Phillies-Padres).

That also marks the best ratings for an NLCS since 2019, when the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals averaged 5,834,000 on Fox/FS1.

The Dodgers' clinching Game 6 on Sunday drew 6.27 million viewers to FS1 -- the third-largest TV audience of this postseason. The Dodgers-Mets Game 1 attracted 8.26 million, and Dodgers-Padres Game 5 of the NLDS drew 7.34 million.

The entire MLB postseason -- including the wild-card round, the league division series and the LCS -- is up 5 percent across all viewing platforms compared to this point last season. The NLCS and ALCS (five games), shown on Fox, FS1, TBS and truTV, averaged 5.32 million viewers, a 2 percent increase from 2023, which featured two seven-game series.

On the American League side, the TBS family of networks showed the ALCS between the triumphant Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians, as well as the ALDS between the Yankees and Kansas City Royals. Those ratings were up 9 percent over the same rounds in 2023.

--Field Level Media