The defending champion Dodgers have been the dominant draw in this year’s MLB Postseason.
All 11 Dodgers playoff games thus far rank among the 15 most-watched of the postseason (through Thursday), more than any other team. Los Angeles has played in five of the top seven and eight of the top 11 games.
Wednesday’s Braves-Dodgers NLCS Game 4 averaged a series-high 5.34 million viewers on TBS, up 6% from last year on FOX and FS1 (5.04M), up 15% from Cardinals-Nationals on TBS in 2019 (4.64M) and the most-watched NLCS Game 4 since Dodgers-Cubs in ’17 (6.79M). It trails only Astros-Red Sox Game 1 — which aired in primetime on broadcast — as the most-watched game of the LCS.
Game 5 drew 5.10 million on Thursday (+42%) and the Game 3 matinee 4.36 million on Tuesday — up 108% from last year in a similar window (2.09M) and up 19% from 2019 in primetime (3.65M).
Every Dodger playoff game that can be compared to last year has increased, though that is no real surprise given last year’s anomalous circumstances. More impressive is the fact that viewership has increased for all ten games that can be compared to 2019, with nine of those up by double-digits.
On the American League side, Games 4 and 5 of Astros-Red Sox averaged 4.14 and 3.51 million viewers on FS1 — up 30% and 6% respectively from Astros-Rays on TBS last year (2.72 and 2.71M) but down 29% and 38% respectively from Astros-Yankees on FS1 in 2019 (5.85 and 5.63M).
After Game 1 posted a slight increase over the 2019 ALCS, the four subsequent games each declined. Figures for Friday’s clinching Game 6 will not be available until the start of the week.
With at most two games left before the World Series, the Yankees-Red Sox AL Wild Card Game remains the most-watched of the postseason with 7.69 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2.
Most-watched games of 2021 MLB Postseason through Thursday
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily, network PR]
