Viewers were clearly ready for the Dodgers to face a challenge, and the Brewers delivered — perhaps too well.
Through three games, the Brewers-Dodgers National League Championship Series was averaging 7.98 million viewers across FOX and FS1 — the most-watched LCS through three games since Angels-Yankees on FOX in 2009, and the most-watched NLCS since Cardinals-Mets on FOX in 2006.
Wednesday’s Game 3 averaged 6.74 million across FS1 (6.46M) and Fox Deportes, the most-watched Game 3 of an LCS since Dodgers-Cubs on the same networks in 2016 (6.76M).
The FS1 audience, which peaked with 7.41 million in the 10 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 54% from last year’s Game 3 between the same teams on TBS and truTV (4.2M). It also increased 41% from last year’s LCS Game 3 on FS1, Blue Jays-Mariners in the AL (4.58M).
Despite airing in a Monday afternoon window, Game 2 averaged 7.04 million across FOX and FS1 (6.92M) and Fox Deportes, marking the most-watched LCS Game 2 since the aforementioned Cubs-Dodgers in ’16 (7.58M).
On FOX and FS1, viewership increased 14% from last year’s NLCS on TBS and truTV (6.02M) and 62% from last year’s Blue Jays-Mariners Game 2 in the same Monday afternoon slot (4.28M).
As previously noted, Game 1 averaged 10.72 million in a post-NFL window on FOX, marking the most-watched LCS Game 1 since 2005. Its 4.7 household rating was the highest for an LCS Game 1 since Yankees-Rangers opened at a 5.0 in 2010.
Note that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen estimates until 2020 or fully accounted for until 2025, that this is only in the second year of a new Nielsen methodology integrating “Big Data” from smart TVs, set-top boxes and first party data with its traditional panel, and that Nielsen has recently tweaked its measurement to better account for co-viewing of games.
Given the viewership for the first three games, there is no telling how well the series could have done had it gone six or seven. Instead, the Brewers swept the Dodgers Thursday night — an outcome few would have imagined less than a week ago. As it is, the series is likely to finish among the most-watched LCS of recent years even with its short length.
Shifting to the American League, the first two games of Guardians-Rays averaged 4.0 million on TNT Sports. Game 1 averaged 2.8 million opposite “Monday Night Football,” the least-watched LCS Game 1 since the 2020 “bubble” — when Astros-Rays aired opposite “Sunday Night Football,” the NBA Finals and breaking news coverage of a presidential hospitalization (2.1M).
Game 2 averaged 5.1 million, actually up 20% from last year’s aforementioned Mariners-Blue Jays Game 2 — which aired in an afternoon window but also on broadcast television. Compared to last year’s Dodgers-Brewers Game 2 on TNT Sports, viewership declined 15%.
The series average figures to take a hit from Thursday’s rescheduled Game 3, which began at 1 PM ET — the earliest start for an LCS game since 1988.
Entering the League Championship Series, the MLB Postseason had been averaging 3.98 million viewers across NBCUniversal, Fox Sports and TNT Sports — down 8% from last year, but still the second-highest average since 2015. The Division Series topped out at 5.37 million for Braves-Dodgers Game 1 on FOX, followed by Yankees-Rays Game 3 at 4.48 million on TBS and truTV.
