In a postseason that includes the Yankees and Dodgers, it has thus far been the Mets with all the juice in the ratings.
Saturday’s Mets-Phillies National League Division Series Game 1 averaged 4.86 million viewers on FOX (4.93M including Fox Deportes), trailing only Guardians-Yankees two years ago (5.35M) as the most-watched LDS Game 1 since 2018 (Yankees-Red Sox: 5.57M). As those two games aired on TBS, it was the most-watched LDS Game 1 on the Fox Sports networks since 2016 (Giants-Cubs: 5.71M).
The Mets’ win doubled last year’s equivalent Twins-Astros window on FS1 (2.49M). It was one of just two LDS openers to air on the FOX broadcast network under the current MLB media rights deals that began in 2006, joining Phillies-Braves on a Tuesday afternoon two years ago (2.83M).
Game 2 on Sunday averaged 3.45 million on FS1 (3.61M including Fox Deportes), more-than-doubling Rangers-Orioles on the same network a year ago (1.60M).
The Mets have now played in the four most-watched games this postseason, with Games 1 and 2 of the Phillies series joining Games 2 and 3 of their Wild Card Series against the Brewers.
Shifting to the other National League series, Padres-Dodgers opened with 2.88 million on FS1 Saturday and 3.44 million on Sunday (3.04 and 3.70 million including Fox Deportes) — up 39 and 51 percent respectively from last year’s comparable windows (Diamondbacks-Dodgers: 2.07M; Twins-Astros: 2.28M).
As for the American League, Saturday’s Royals-Yankees ALDS Game 1 averaged 3.23 million on TBS (3.44M including UniMas), down 16% from Phillies-Braves in the same evening window last year (3.84M). Tigers-Guardians brought up the rear Saturday with 1.92 million across TBS and truTV (2.07M including UniMas), off 1% from Rangers-Orioles on FS1 last year (1.94M).
Though both windows were down, TBS did see a 21% increase over last year’s ALDS Game 1 average on FS1. Keep in mind both of last year’s ALDS openers were in the afternoon.
