The Dodgers-Yankees World Series finished, as expected, on a high note.
Wednesday’s Dodgers-Yankees World Series Game 5 averaged a 9.0 rating and 18.15 million viewers on FOX (18.6M including Fox Deportes and streaming), marking the largest World Series audience since Game 7 of the 2019 series and the top Game 5 audience since Dodgers-Astros in 2017 (18.94M). Keep in mind the 2018 Red Sox-Dodgers Game 5 (17.63M) would have almost certainly finished with a larger audience had out-of-home viewing been tracked in Nielsen estimates at that time.
The Dodgers’ comeback win, which peaked with 21.27 million in the 11:15 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 50% and 58% respectively from last year’s Rangers-Diamondbacks clincher (6.0, 11.48M).
On a Nielsen-only basis, Game 5 of the Fall Classic outdrew every NBA and men’s college basketball game since 2019. Excluding football and the Olympics, it ranks second among sportscasts this year behind the NCAA women’s basketball national championship.
The complete, five-game Dodgers-Yankees series averaged 15.20 million viewers on FOX, up two-thirds from last year (9.11M) and the most-watched World Series since 2017 (18.9M). Going back further, it trails only 2016 (23.4M) and 2017 as the most-watched since 2011 (Cardinals-Rangers: 16.6M). As previously noted, series like 2013 (Red Sox-Cardinals: 14.9M) or 2015 (Royals-Mets: 14.7M) would likely rank higher with out-of-home included.
This year’s series is the least-watched Fall Classic to ever involve the Yankees, falling below the previous mark of 18.1 million for their 2000 matchup with the Mets. The Yankees’ previous World Series against the Phillies in 2009 averaged 19.4 million. Even with all the methodological changes Nielsen has put in place to make today’s viewership figures look as if they are comparable to the recent and distant past, it remains the case that 2024 is a different television environment than 2009.
Including Spanish-language coverage, this year’s World Series averaged 15.81 million. The Spanish-language audience this year was particularly pronounced due to an unprecedented Univision airing of Game 1.
Los Angeles led all markets for the full series with an 18.9 and 53 share. The rating declined 11% from the Dodgers’ six-game win over the Rays in the COVID year of 2020 (21.2), but the share increased 29% from a 41 — another indication of the decline in television viewing. With fewer people watching television, a lower rating still produced a higher share (percentage of homes watching out of homes with televisions in use).
New York turned in a 12.2/33, less than half of the 30.4/45 Yankees-Phillies averaged in 2009.
