From the biggest stars shining in crucial moments, walk-off home runs and elite pitching performances, this year’s postseason for Major League Baseball has everything a viewer could ever imagine. During the league’s most important month, October, it all goes down to find the World Series champion, causing a major shift in momentum this season.
For over a generation, the MLB’s postseason hasn’t brought in the viewership and fan excitement that they look for when it comes to do or die baseball in October. Usually, playoffs gain the most attention of any time period in a professional sports league, but that has not always been the case for the MLB. 2023 was one of the stronger viewership years for the league, but a steady downward trend in October viewership has heavily affected how the sport overall has been viewed. The game that reached unprecedented levels last season was the Texas Rangers’ Game 5 World Series win over the Arizona Diamondbacks which generated a new low for October baseball viewership.
Just one year has made the ultimate difference for the MLB. Even before the World Series begun, the 2024 MLB postseason has been a nearly-every night source of captivating drama and game circumstances that has produced some of the league’s best viewership figures in years. This also included a new audience high in Japan. That is all mostly credited to the gravitational pull of the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar, Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani has been one of the players who has played a large role in restoring a buzz in the MLB during its most important month of the season. The rest of the compelling and attention-grabbing factors is a mix of the major stars on the road for the championship, top media markets involved and cinematic on-field results.
Bringing together star power like Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Pete Alonso and Fransisco Lindor has been a major factor in seeing the viewership of the MLB postseason on the rise. Baseball is known to be a very regional sport, and the market size of the teams that are competing for the World Series is making a large difference.
This pattern can be expected in the later series of the MLB postseason as the Dodgers and the New York Yankees, two of the MLB’s most popular teams and two of the largest U.S. media markets, will meet in the World Series. This is going to provide a perfect geographic spread for the league and the fans across the country who are watching.
Some of the notable statistics from the viewership of the 2024 MLB postseason:
- There has been a 16% lift in total postseason viewership through game 3 of the National League Championship series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets and in game 2 of the American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians which has been the best overall draw to this point of the playoffs since 2018.
- There was a collective bump of 18% in domestic viewership for the Wild Card and Division Series rounds of the playoffs to 3.33 million per game. Fox Sports has seen their best MLB postseason results since its cable outlet FS1 began the league’s playoff coverage in 2014.
- The ALCS averaged 4.82 million through the first two games of the series which is down 15% compared to last season. However, Game 1 on Oct. 14 increased against a Monday Night Football game which involved the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bulls, which carved up New York area viewership tremendously.
- Game 2 of the ALCS had a noticeable rebound with a viewership average of 5.61 million which is up by 28% from the same type of game in 2023.
- Game 3 on Oct. 17, was already viewed to be an instant classic which was ended by a Guardians’ extra-inning walk-off win.
Outside of the United States, in some games, Japan’s viewership has tripled that of the U.S. This is considering Japan’s time difference, resulting in some games airing in the morning, and Japan’s smaller population, 123 million people to the U.S.’ 345 million. Game 5 of the NLDS game between the Dodgers and Padres aired on Saturday morning in Japan and drew a 19.2 rating there. That figure, which represents the percentage of TV households watching a program, would translate to about 33 million people had it been in the U.S.
But as for Ohtani, an elbow injury this year prevented him from what he is known for, hitting and pitching, but he still managed to make history with a new ground. Ohtani became MLB’s first player with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. However, the star appeal has extended to many major headlines like Judge, Soto, Lindor and Ohtani’s teammates Betts and Freeman. This all includes some of MLB’s most popular teams and the league’s first, second and fifth-biggest spenders (Dodgers, Mets, Yankees).
On the other hand, the Guardians are the undercard in MLB’s final four, with a $107 million payroll that isn’t even close to the other three remaining teams. But Cleveland also has stars of their own with José Ramírez and Steven Kwan, and emerging players Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry. There are elements of the 2004 Red Sox and the 2016 Cubs with the Guardians’ 76-year World Series drought, which makes their storyline special if they were able to complete their championship pursuit.
The New York Mets have been a sensational story on their own. After operating under huge expectations of an MLB-record $344 million payroll, internal and external pressure is inevitable, given owner Steve Cohen and his estimated $21.3 billion net worth, which is also the highest in the league. However, the 2024 New York Mets have aggressively embraced a sense of pop culture along with dominating baseball. They have highlighted tie-ins with McDonald’s mascot Grimace and “OMG” which is infielder’s Jose Iglesias’s hit single.
“What we are experiencing right now, we’re making history,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza during the playoff run. “That’s what we want. We want to create something here [that’s] special, that we’re playing meaningful games this year when it’s getting cold again. This is something we’re all embracing. I know it’s been a while [since the Mets contended], and that’s why you see so much excitement around the city and around baseball.”
Game 1 of the World Series is on Oct. 25 between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. This series could approach NFL conference championship game type-numbers and statistics or even the Super Bowl, especially since some of the biggest faces in baseball like Ohtani and Judge will be there competing for who’s going to take it all home.