The games have not lived up to the hype, but the big-market National League Championship Series continues to hit multi-year highs.
Wednesday’s Dodgers-Mets National League Championship Series Game 3 averaged a 2.9 rating and 5.88 million viewers on FS1 (6.2M including Fox Deportes and streaming), marking the highest rated LCS Game 3 since Red Sox-Astros in 2018 (3.0) and the most-watched since Dodgers-Cubs in 2017 (6.01M).
The Dodgers’ blowout win, which peaked with 6.82 million in the 9:30 PM ET quarter-hour, delivered the largest FS1 audience — across all sports — since Game 6 of the 2021 ALCS (Red Sox-Astros: 5.99M).
It also ranks as the most-watched cable-exclusive game of the postseason, surpassing the previous night’s ALCS Game 2 on TBS (Guardians-Yankees: 5.61M). Those are the only cable-exclusive games to rank among the six most-watched thus far, with the four others having aired on FOX. There is only one more game set for broadcast television before the World Series, a potential Mets-Dodgers Game 7 next Monday.
Overall, Game 3 ranks third for the postseason in viewership behind Sunday’s Game 1 (8.26M) and the Padres-Dodgers NLDS Game 5 (7.34M), both of which aired exclusively on FOX. Including Monday’s Game 2 on FOX and FS1 (5.52M), each of the three NLCS games thus far ranks in the top five. In what has been a big market postseason, each of the 14 most-watched games has involved a team from New York or Los Angeles.
Ratings increased 36% and viewership 44% from last year’s Phillies-Diamondbacks Game 3 on TBS and truTV (2.1, 4.07M) and 12% and 21% respectively from Padres-Phillies on FS1 in 2022 (2.6, 4.88M). Compared to last year’s LCS Game 3 on FS1, Astros-Rangers in the American League, ratings increased 16% and viewership 27% from a 2.5 and 4.64 million.
Los Angeles led all markets with a 9.7 rating and 33 share, followed by New York at a 9.0/25. The two markets vanquished by the Dodgers and Mets in the Division Series — San Diego and Philadelphia — placed third (5.5/21) and fifth (4.2/12) respectively.
