Maybe the best way to describe how Erik Shanks of FOX Sports and Commissioner Rob Manfred would view the 2024 World Series is a glass half-empty; glass half-full kind of thing. On the downside, the series went just five games after the Yankees gave up 5 unearned runs in the top of the 5th inning in what will be remembered as one of the most historic collapses in World Series history. On the upside, given the series matched up the two largest markets in the country, with two of the biggest brands, even with it all just reaching a Game 5, it wound up being one of the largest viewed Fall Classics of the last 15 years.
Looking at the viewership numbers, Game 5 pulled 18.6 million viewers across FOX, FOX Deportes, and streaming making it the most-watched Game 5 dating back to the Dodgers-Astros World Series in 2017.
The series averaged 15.808 million viewers across the FOX platforms, ranking it behind only the 2011 World Series (Cardinals-Rangers that went seven games with an average of 16,521,143), the 2017 Fall Classic (seven games with an average of 18,701,429) and the 2016 World Series that saw the Chicago Cubs break their World Series drought against the Cleveland Indians that went an epic seven games (average viewership of 22,846,429). That means with just five games between the Dodgers and Yankees average viewership was larger than two series that went seven games (2019 between the Astros and Nationals; 2014 between the Giants and Royals), and four series that went six games (2022 Phillies-Astros, 2021 Braves-Astros, 2020 Rays-Dodgers, 2013 Red Sox-Cardinals).
Graph showing World Series viewership by game dating back to 2010.
For both FOX and Major League Baseball, the jump between last year’s Texas Rangers-Arizona Diamondbacks was mind-blowing.
Across all platforms, the 2024 World Series was up +73% compared to last year. Through five games on FOX alone, the World Series averaged 15,204,000 viewers, up +67% over last year (TEX-AZ: 9,108,000), making it the best five-game average of the World Series since 2017 (LAD-HOU: 16,416,000).
On FOX Deportes, Game 5 averaged 447,000 viewers, making it the network’s most-watched MLB game this season as well as the most-watched World Series Game 5 since 2018 (BOS-LAD: 577,000). Game 5 was up +174% over last year (TEX-AZ: 166,000).
With the massive brand appeal of the Dodgers and Yankees, the jumps in key youth demos were staggering compared to last year. In the 12-17 age demo it was up +67%, up a whopping +101% in the key 18-34 age demo, and up +92% in the 18-49 age demo.
Last season was one of the lowest viewed on record, but comparing the last three World Series shows how well the Dodgers-Yankees fared given the 2022 World Series went six games.
Graph showing World Series viewership by game over the last three years.
In terms of markets, unsurprisingly Los Angeles dominated with big ratings/share numbers. Surprisingly, San Diego had a bigger percentage of TVs tuned into the game than the New York designated area market. The MLB to Portland effort – one that has been in play for possible expansion or relocation – landed at #10.
Top available markets by ratings/share for the entire World Series include (data via Nielsen by way of FOX Sports):
- Los Angeles (18.9/53)
- San Diego (12.4/41)
- New York (12.2/33)
- Hartford (11.1/30)
- Las Vegas (9.3/28)
- Kansas City (8.7/25)
- Phoenix (8.2/25)
- St. Louis (8.2/24)
- West Palm (8.2/21)
- Portland (8.0/30)
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