Dodgers win in Game 5 draws largest crowd in 7 years (Video)

The 2024 World Series may have been short, but the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees still proved they could draw viewers.

Game 5 of the World Series averaged 18.6 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming services, the network said, making it the most-watched Game 5 on Fox since the 2017 World Series. Dodgers won the game 7–6 to claim his eighth title.

Those numbers are 58% higher than Game 5 of last year’s World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. continuing the trend that started with the first game. With the title within reach, Los Angeles performed better locally than New York, with a 21.1 rating and 55 share.

Viewership peaked between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, around the time the Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth inning and Blake Treinen defended that lead with a scoreless frame.

Overall, the World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers per game, the league’s highest since 2017.

It’s for this reason that Fox probably wishes the Yankees could hang on a little longer. The network was as reported The average ad revenue for the first five games was $44.3 million, and games 6 and 7 have the potential to reach even higher numbers.

However, this is only half the ratings success story. There is also the question of Japan, who scored record numbers in the first two games of the series. Considering national hero Shohei Ohtani was on the verge of winning the title in Games 4 and 5, the numbers for this region should be even higher when they arrive.

It might be worth asking why numbers from seven years ago are a win for MLB, given that it’s hard to imagine a better possible matchup from a ratings standpoint, but the league has been battling declining viewership in the television industry for years.

The period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has been particularly difficult for the sports industry, so virtually every major league will return to the same state as seven years ago. Except of course NFL.