The Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs season in the United States is recording its highest viewership since 2017, according to data collected up to the League Championship Series (LCS).
The average audience is 4.48 million viewers, which represents a 13% increase compared to the previous year, according to reports.
Much of this growth is due to the performance of the first two rounds of the competition.
The American League Championship Series (ALCS), broadcast by Fox, Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes, and streaming platforms, averaged 4.99 million viewers across the seven games.
This data is comparable to last year’s ALCS, where the New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Guardians in five games.
The National League Championship Series (NLCS) recorded an average of 4.7 million viewers, a 17% decrease compared to last year’s six-game series.
The Game 7, where the Toronto Blue Jays secured a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners, averaged 9.03 million viewers, becoming the most-watched ALCS game in eight years. The audience peaked at 12.35 million in the ninth inning.
MLB has also experienced significant growth in Canada and Japan.
The victory of Toronto, which took them to the World Series for the first time since 1993, averaged 6 million viewers in Canada and was the most-watched Blue Jays game on Sportsnet.
Ohtani’s outstanding performance in Game 4 averaged 10.26 million viewers in Japan, being the second most-watched LCS game in the country’s history. The 16-hour time difference between Tokyo and Los Angeles meant that the game was broadcast on Saturday morning in Japan.
The NLCS averaged a LCS record of 7.34 million in Japan, a 26% increase over the previous year, as fans continue to follow Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki in record numbers.
