The Big Lead

World Series News: Yankees-Dodgers ratings continue to fulfill potential

By J.P. Hoornstra

Oct 26, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Left to right: Fox Sports broadcasters Kevin Burkhardt and Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz and Derek Jeter on field after the game two between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees of the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium.
Oct 26, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Left to right: Fox Sports broadcasters Kevin Burkhardt and Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz and Derek Jeter on field after the game two between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees of the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The ratings bonanza promised by the first Yankees-Dodgers World Series since 1981 continues to fulfill its potential.

Through four games, the World Series on Fox Sports has averaged 14,984,000 viewers, the highest for any Fall Classic since 2017, when the Dodgers played the Houston Astros to a seven-game duel.

Ratings for the marquee matchup continue to dwarf the ratings for the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, two mid-market franchises that had never played each other in a World Series. Compared to Game 4 last year, the Yankees' 11-4 win on Tuesday marked a 92 percent increase in viewership.

Compared to other Game 4s, Fox reports Tuesday's viewership was the highest since 2016, when the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in a classic seven-game series.

According to Fox, Tuesday's audience peaked from 10:15-10:30 Eastern Time, with an average of 18,218,000 viewers.

Including the audience that tuned in via Fox Deportes, Game 4 was the most-watched baseball game in the U.S. since Game 7 of the 2019 Nationals-Astros series, according to Sportico's Anthony Crupi.

Crupi also reports that the game is the 66th most-watched broadcast of 2024, marking the first time in five years that an MLB game will crack the year-end top 100.

For those who have followed MLB's postseason ratings since the beginning of October, none of this will come as a surprise. Game 3 was Fox's most-watched Monday prime time telecast since Game 5 of the 2013 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

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