It’s the most wonderful time of the year. In baseball terms, it’s October. When the weather gets colder, the leaves start changing and playoff baseball starts heating up at the crack of a bat.
Major League Baseball is a long regular season consisting of 162 games. In these long six months, teams can get away with poor stretches or inconsistencies and still have a really successful season in the end. But in October, every pitch carries weight, and every swing can be the difference maker in a game as one single matchup could end a team’s season.
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In October, great players become legacies with iconic plays, creating moments that will last a lifetime for franchises. October is when history is made. Derek Jeter becoming “Mr. November” in 2001, Madison Bumgarner’s historic 2014 postseason run and Pete Alonso’s home run of a lifetime against the Milwaukee Brewers in 2024 are some examples. Teams also get around to using slogan campaigns to build more excitement around their runs in the postseason; ‘Red October’ is used for the Philadelphia Phillies and ‘Believeland’ is used as a rally cry for the Cleveland Guardians. With this energy, not one seat is empty in ballparks and the fan atmosphere is unlike any other time in the baseball season.
“It’s all about big teams, big stars and great comebacks,” Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based SportsCorp Ltd. said. “Baseball in many ways is still a regional sport, and here, market size is helping make a major difference.”
“It’s an exciting time of year, where anything can happen,” said Yankees captain Aaron Judge. “Over the course of what we’ve done this whole season, there’s been some good times and bad times, but I think that ultimately prepares you for the real season now – the postseason.”
Most games in October happen under the lights on primetime TV. As the stadiums are sold out, the rest of the nation is typically watching at home. Last season, MLB produced some of the best viewership they had seen in years with a new audience high in Japan as the league expands outside the United States. Thanks in large part to Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, the buzz of the postseason has spread to international spectators, pushing the league to higher ratings. Despite the time difference that usually makes for postseason games airing in the morning hours, Japan’s viewership has been a new standout in MLB’s postseason TV ratings.
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In 2024, Fox Sports saw their best postseason results since its cable outlet FS1 began to cover playoff baseball in 2014. There was a 16% increase in total postseason viewership through Game 3 of the NLCS series between the Dodgers and the New York Mets and Game 2 of the ALCS between the New York Yankees and Guardians, which was the best overall draw. For the wild card games and the division series rounds of the playoffs, ratings averaged 3.33 million per game, which was an 18% increase in domestic viewership.
The postseason is currently in the midst of the wild card games but will get much more intense very soon. October is peak baseball with drama-filled moments and history in the making for whatever team will hold up the World Series trophy at the end of the month.